Natural Flavors
Hopefully you are reading the ingredient labels of the food you are buying. If the label has long chemical sounding names in the ingredient list you should avoid buying the "food". Manufacturers know we don't like buying chemical laden foods so they use terms like "natural flavors" and "natural coloring". My idea of natural flavors and natural food coloring is using actual food in the process.
This unfortunately is not the case when it comes to food labeling and the FDA. Natural food flavorings are made in laboratories by "flavorists". These are the same people that make artificial flavorings. They combine natural chemicals together to create natural flavoring and synthetic chemicals together to create artificial flavoring. When making a natural flavor such as grape, a flavorist will separate out the chemicals that don't help in creating the desired taste and use just the chemicals needed. This way they can intensify the flavor by adding more of the "flavor" chemicals than what would naturally occur. This is why processed foods have a more intense flavor to them than what naturally occurs. Have you ever squeezed fresh grapes to make grape juice? It doesn't taste quite the same as store bought "all natural" or "100% juice" grape juice.
The FDA defines natural flavor the following way: The term natural flavor or natural flavoring means the essential oil, oleoresin, essence or extractive, protein hydrolysate, distillate, or any product of roasting, heating or enzymolysis, which contains the flavoring constituents derived from a spice, fruit or fruit juice, vegetable or vegetable juice, edible yeast, herb, bark, bud, root, leaf or similar plant material, meat, seafood, poultry, eggs, dairy products, or fermentation products thereof, whose significant function in food is flavoring rather than nutritional. Natural flavors include the natural essence or extractives obtained from plants listed in 182.10, 182.20, 182.40, and 182.50 and part 184 of this chapter, and the substances listed in 172.510 of this chapter.
Know what you're buying and what you're eating by making as much of the food you eat at home. Save money and eat healthier. Start enjoying the actual taste of the food you eat instead of the manufactured taste companies sell you.
The FDA defines natural flavor the following way: The term natural flavor or natural flavoring means the essential oil, oleoresin, essence or extractive, protein hydrolysate, distillate, or any product of roasting, heating or enzymolysis, which contains the flavoring constituents derived from a spice, fruit or fruit juice, vegetable or vegetable juice, edible yeast, herb, bark, bud, root, leaf or similar plant material, meat, seafood, poultry, eggs, dairy products, or fermentation products thereof, whose significant function in food is flavoring rather than nutritional. Natural flavors include the natural essence or extractives obtained from plants listed in 182.10, 182.20, 182.40, and 182.50 and part 184 of this chapter, and the substances listed in 172.510 of this chapter.
Know what you're buying and what you're eating by making as much of the food you eat at home. Save money and eat healthier. Start enjoying the actual taste of the food you eat instead of the manufactured taste companies sell you.
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