Flavourings in the context of Chemoreceptor

An ultra-processed food (UPF) is a grouping of processed food characterized by relatively involved methods of production. There is no simple definition of UPF, but they are generally understood to be an industrial creation derived from natural food or synthesized from other organic compounds. The resulting products are designed to be highly profitable, convenient, and hyperpalatable, often through food additives such as preservatives, colourings, and flavourings. UPFs have often undergone processes such as moulding/extruding, hydrogenation, or frying.

Ultra-processed foods first became ubiquitous in the 1980s, though the term "ultra-processed food" gained prominence from a 2009 paper by Brazilian researchers as part of the Nova classification system. In the Nova system, UPFs include most bread and other mass-produced baked goods, frozen pizza, instant noodles, flavored yogurt, fruit and milk drinks, diet products, baby food, and most of what is considered junk food. The Nova definition considers ingredients, processing, and how products are marketed; nutritional content is not evaluated. As of 2024, research into the effects of UPFs is rapidly evolving.

A pear drop is a British boiled sweet made from sugar and flavourings. "Old-fashioned" pear drops are a combination of half pink and half yellow in a pear-shaped drop about the size of a thumbnail, although they are more commonly found in packets containing separate yellow drops and pink drops in roughly equal proportions ("original"). The artificial flavours isoamyl acetate and ethyl acetate are responsible for the characteristic flavour of pear drops: the former confers a banana flavour, the latter a pear flavour. Both esters are used in many pear- and banana-flavoured sweets. However, a natural pear-derived product from pear juice concentrate is sometimes used.

The largest pear drop in the world is housed at Stockley's Sweets in Oswaldtwistle Mills in Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, England. In 2009 a survey of 4,000 adults found that pear drops were the fourteenth most popular sweet in the United Kingdom.