Have ever thought about the ingredients listed on the labels, bags, cans or boxes of food mentioning “natural flavours”? Or is it that your food will taste good without adding any ingredients to it? So it’s imperative to understand what ingredients make a flavour and why these flavours are necessary.
Flavour is a very important feature when it comes to foods that we consume. It is really difficult to even imagine eating bland or flavourless food. Essentially, the flavour is a proper mix of the taste and aroma.
While there are some natural foods like fresh fruits which taste delicious. But enhancing the flavour of foods is always a joyful experience. Addition of flavour to foods helps to stimulate the appetite which is very essential for people who are underweight or older people who seem to have lost their ability to taste due to some disability.
But why are flavours used as food additives?
We all know the aroma of fresh foods while cooking at home. Just imagine the scent of fresh bread that is baked in your oven or a delicious vegetable stew smouldering on your kitchen stove. But again cooking yourself at home is very time-consuming. Most of the working population doesn’t have the required time to cook for themselves, so they have to consume processed foods that appear almost as good and fresh and like its homemade.
However, these processed foods must have a longer shelf life and need to have preservatives added in order to accomplish that homemade flavour. This necessitates the food & beverages manufacturers to add flavours to maintain or enhance the flavour of foods.
What does the term “natural flavours” mean?
It means that the natural flavours are essence/extractive, essential oil, oleoresin or other products that are sourced from plants or animals and added to food & beverages to enhance the flavour of particular foods. They can be sourced from fruit/fruit juice, spices, edible yeast, vegetable/vegetable juice, bark, herbs, leaf, root, or seafood, meat, poultry or dairy products.
The label of “natural flavour” really doesn’t tell you much about what these added flavours actually taste like. Because it’s very easy to recognise a flavour in an actual recipe, but it’s much difficult to find out what flavours are being added to the processed foods.
Here are a few questions that may arise in your mind regarding “Natural Flavours:”
- Are these natural flavours safer than their counterparts (artificial flavours)? I’m afraid they are not. Although artificial flavours are derived from non-edible sources and natural flavours are derived from edible sources, both are roundabout the same and both are safe to consume.
- Are these natural flavours appropriate for vegetarian/vegan foods? Natural flavours are sourced from both, plants and animals. Therefore, if it’s clearly stated that the natural flavours contained in a particular food are plant-based, there’s actually no other source to find out whether the flavours are from plants or animals.
- Are these natural flavours organic? Again, unless and until there’s clear mention of it by the food manufacturer, there’s actually no other source to find out whether the flavours are from organic sources.
- Can we consider monosodium glutamate a natural flavour? Monosodium glutamate is a flavour enhancer and if it’s used as an ingredient in any food, then MSG needs to be listed in the ingredients list.
Currently, natural flavours are being used in different foods and are most preferred by consumers. As they are derived from edible or natural elements, we can say for sure that they are definitely safe to consume. But we need to keep this in mind that by just simply mentioning “natural flavours” on the food & beverages labels, it doesn’t really mean that those products are healthier than those foods which are made using artificial flavours. We would recommend you to have a look at the nutritional ingredients listed on the label to know for sure that the food indeed is healthier or not.
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