A flavorist explains how your favorite fruit drink gets that taste.
But what exactly goes into making these natural flavorings, and what does natural flavors mean?
or animals (meat, dairy products, eggs, etc.)
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via a method of heating, with its primary function in food being flavoring not nutritional.
What Is Flavor?
Before we get to the natural flavor ingredient makeup, its important to know what makes a flavor.
Each flavor we taste is made of molecules.
People get freaked out by the word chemical or molecule even though were made of chemicals, Wright says.
Wright calls this the magic whoosh.
And that single strawberry is made up of around 250 to 300 molecules to create that specific flavor composition.
What Are Natural Flavors?
This is where those molecules come into play, and it gets a bit scientific.
This is because fresh strawberry juice doesnt have much shelf life.
before going into your soda, yogurt, fruit snack, or whatever it may be.
Are Natural Flavors Safe?
Creating a natural flavor is always done according to regulations, ensuring every ingredient used is considered safe.
(Wright says most flavors fall into the natural flavor category.)
FEMA is the authority in evaluating the safe and responsible use of flavorings.
It also keeps an eye on thestate and legislative regulationsthat may require label changes.
So just because it says natural doesnt mean there are health benefits.
Artificial flavors are made solely from chemicals combined to mimic a flavor.
