According to the FDA, natural flavoring is a substance derived from natural sources—plants, animals, spices, fruits, vegetables, or yeast—used for flavoring rather than nutritional purposes. While derived from natural products, they are highly processed in laboratories to act as intense flavor enhancers, often making them more similar to artificial flavors than the original ingredient
Key Aspects of Natural Flavoring:
- Source: They must come from edible sources such as herbs, roots, bark, buds, leaves, spices, fruit juice, vegetable juice, or meat, fish, and poultry.
- Processing: While natural in origin, these ingredients are distilled, fermented, or heavily processed in a lab to create concentrated flavors.
- Purpose: They are used to enhance taste or create a “craveable” flavor profile, not for nutritional value.
- Confusing Definition: A single, proprietary label of “natural flavor” can contain numerous preservatives or solvents (like propylene glycol), and it can be difficult to discern the exact components.
- Natural vs. Artificial: The key distinction is that artificial flavors are created in a lab using non-natural chemicals, whereas natural flavors originate from natural, albeit heavily manipulated, materials
Commonly found in processed foods (such as chips, juices, and yogurts), these additives are used to create or maintain a specific taste, such as vanilla, fruit, or savory flovers.