Flavorings: Natural, Artificial, Organic...

[Chris Amirault]

I was snooping through the Mountain Rose catalogue that came with my order of bitters ingredients, and I spied these "organic flavorings." Ever since reading Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation, I've been aware that the "natural" in "natural flavorings" doesn't usually mean what I used to think it means, referring instead to a highly industrial product. But "organic flavorings"?

Here's what the US FDA's Code of Federal Regulations has to tell us on the subject of artificial and natural flavoring:

The term artificial flavor or artificial flavoring means any

substance, the function of which is to impart flavor, which is not

derived from a spice, fruit or fruit juice, vegetable or vegetable

juice, edible yeast, herb, bark, bud, root, leaf or similar plant

material, meat, fish, poultry, eggs, dairy products, or fermentation

products thereof.

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.

I can't find anything about "organic flavoring" there or elsewhere, though I would guess that we're talking about derivatives from organic items on that natural list above. Or is this just a marketing trick that hasn't been FDA-ed yet?

[feedmec00kies]

From the Mountain Rose description (also found on this page for another company), the text makes me believe that it's just natural flavorings sourced from "certified organic" foods/substances/whatever. Probably doesn't need/have a separate FDA category because it's really just natural flavoring.

Whatever. As long as none of these natural flavors come from apples. I remember Schlosser saying they tend to have arsenic. (Not that a small amount of arsenic will actually kill you... it doesn'd build up like lead..)