Consumer demands have led many companies to remove artificial flavors from their products. Unfortunately, this can sometimes prove challenging and may compromise health or taste.
Understand what these chemicals do and their manufacturing process so you can make informed decisions for your health.
What is a Natural Flavor?
Natural flavors are produced from extracts, oils and essences derived from natural sources like spices, fruits, vegetables, herbs, barks roots leaves and seeds. Flavor chemists are trained professionals who prepare these mixtures under strict regulations in order to ensure their safety; however a lack of standardization regarding what constitutes “natural” can cause confusion among consumers as many natural flavors contain both natural and nature-identical extracts as well as processing aids like solvents and emulsifiers that might come across as artificially labeled products labelled as such as being considered natural by consumers expecting clean labels from such labels when purchasing such labelled products labelled as such products labeled as such products being called so.
However, the FDA does not require food manufacturers to list these additives on their ingredient lists. Furthermore, natural flavors may contain ingredients derived from genetically modified crops; since there is no clear definition for “natural,” such ingredients can still be included in food products.
What is an Artificial Flavor?
Artificial flavors are synthetic chemical mixtures designed to simulate natural tastes found in plants, animals or spices without extracting these flavor compounds from these sources directly. Food scientists employ artificial flavoring ingredients in processed food products like beverages, candies, snacks, baked goods and more for delicious consumer experiences.
Natural and artificial flavors differ in that natural ones must contain only ingredients derived from plants or animals, while artificial ones can include any of nearly 700 FDA-approved chemical flavoring agents classified as generally recognized as safe (GRAS).
Flavor chemists carefully analyze the molecular structures of natural ingredients to produce artificial versions that match them exactly, enabling manufacturers to make cost-efficient products while meeting consumer preferences and safety regulations. Furthermore, many artificial and natural flavors share nearly identical molecular structures, meaning there is no clear evidence suggesting artificial ones cause allergic reactions.
What is the Difference Between Natural and Artificial Flavors?
Food industry terminology tends to portray artificial flavoring chemicals negatively; however, these flavoring agents have undergone comprehensive health evaluations and offer much less costly ways of making products taste like their natural ingredients.
The FDA defines “natural flavoring” as any flavor extracted from plants or animal sources; however, they allow natural flavors created in a laboratory using chemical compounds not necessarily sourced from those sources (for instance citral is often associated with lemon flavors but it could come from lemongrass).
Food manufacturers utilizing this flexibility can produce innovative products with unique flavor combinations not achievable with natural ingredients alone, as well as reduce production costs and waste by creating more consistent flavor profiles in their product lines.
What is the Health Impact of Artificial Flavors?
Truth be told, both natural and artificial flavors can be unhealthy for us. Many natural flavors contain toxic chemicals derived from industrial processes and processed using unhealthy methods; moreover, most FDA-approved food flavors don’t provide any nutritional benefit either.
Artificial flavors may not be as harmful as people think; their chemical mixtures tend to be much simpler than the natural flavors they mimic, which typically contain hundreds of chemicals.
However, it remains that avoiding foods containing artificial flavors isn’t easy; most ultra-processed food contain them. A more sensible strategy would be to decrease overall processed food consumption in your diet while opting for naturally flavored whole foods instead.
