FlavorCP

FlavorCP, short for Flavor Control Protocol, is a proposed open-standard and software framework designed to encode, store, and exchange flavor-profile data used in culinary technology, sensory science, and product development. The goal is to provide a consistent data model that integrates chemical flavor compounds, sensory descriptors, and temporal flavor dynamics to support automated recipe design and quality control.

The data model covers quantifiable flavor elements such as compound identifiers, concentration or intensity, measurement units, sensory descriptors (for example, fruity or smoky), onset and duration of perceived flavor, and provenance metadata including instrument and method. FlavorCP defines schemas to link flavor data to recipe steps, food matrices, and experimental results, enabling interoperability with other data standards and databases.

Implementation and use: reference implementations exist in several programming languages and provide APIs for creating, validating, and querying flavor profiles. The framework uses JSON-LD for metadata and supports RESTful services and event-based processing. The project is open source under a permissive license and welcomes community contributions.

Applications: FlavorCP is intended for sensory analysis dashboards, flavor database curation, predictive recipe optimization, and quality assurance in food manufacturing. It supports traceability from raw data to product formulation and enables comparison of sensory data across laboratories.

Status and reception: FlavorCP remains a community-driven concept without universal adoption. Ongoing work focuses on expanding the flavor vocabulary, improving calibration procedures, and aligning with broader food-data standards.