How natural is natural?
I’ve always been somewhat intrigued to read “natural flavours” on food labels. It really is on almost all of them. But why don’t “they”, the manufacturers specify which natural flavours they are?
Natural sounds lovely. You’d think they’d be proud of those matching flavours that are used to give extra zing to their products. Even though the term “natural” has no formal definition, people often interpret it to mean healthy. The truth is though, natural flavours are generations away from their natural sources. |
Lab chemists have their impressive technology to make extracts, then work on them to produce commercial flavourings that are sold in huge quantities.
There are hundreds of so-called natural flavours in your food. They’re not available to you in your kitchen, just to the commercial bakers and food manufacturers. That’s why, no matter how wonderful your home baking is, it never quite achieves the amazing flavours found in your supermarket foods.
- Amyl acetate. This compound can be distilled from bananas in order to provide banana-like flavor in baked goods.
- Citral. Also known as geranial, citral is extracted from lemongrass, lemon, orange, and pimento. It is used in citrus-flavored beverages and sweets.
- Benzaldehyde. This chemical is extracted from almonds, cinnamon oil, and other ingredients. It is frequently used to give foods an almond flavor and aroma.
- Linden ether: honey flavor
- Massoia lactone: coconut flavor
- Acetoin: butter flavor
All these flavors can also be produced using lab-created chemicals, in which case they would be listed as artificial flavors. So you see why it’s important for those labels to cover all the bases.
Castoreum. Huh?
The precious castoreum is used in perfumes, and to a much lesser extent unlabelled in the food industry. Just a trace flavour amount makes fake vanilla taste more like the real thing, but it is very expensive stuff.
During my second bout of Covid-19 I suddenly lost both smell and taste. It was a dreadful, helpless feeling. Let’s just use plant vanilla. The beavers are entitled to keep their castor sacs intact.
Pumpkins!
I was content to see these beauties in a local grocery store, instead.
They were amazing! Many old varieties.