Quality Control of Vanilla Beans and Extracts

This chapter focuses on quality control of vanilla beans and commercial vanilla products. A high quality commercial vanilla product relies on both quality control of the product itself, as well as the vanilla beans from which it is made. Vanilla extracts or flavorings of three‐fold or higher strengths are prepared by removing part of the solvent by vacuum distillation. Vanilla extracts made from Indian vanilla beans tend to yield vanillin content in the range of 0.2 to 0.25% per fold, although Gassenmeier et al. have found lower values for the 2006/2007 crop of Indian beans. The chapter explains the grading of vanilla beans based on appearance, aroma, taste, and vanillin content. It provides the determination of authenticity of vanilla extracts. Authenticity of vanilla products is accepted if it conforms to criteria defined by: the US standard of identity for vanilla, and International Organization of the Flavor Industry (IOFI) guidelines.