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Many products claim to be “natural”, while others list both “natural” and “artificial” flavors in their ingredients. Are there rules that are about exactly what these terms can mean and do not know? I would be interested?
Natural: Oh! Artificial: boo!
Most of us cannot help such a feeling when we come across words related to food products. Natural only sounds so healthy and right. Artificial? Well, for the starters, this word “object” – and all the tacit deception and deception of it – is accurately built. However, apart from knee-jerk reactions, the reality that these expressions are on food labels is much less clear.
By the way, what is “natural”?
According to Merriam Webster, it is a natural meaning that exists or causes nature, not humanity. If you follow the logic of definition, the food prepared cannot be ever It is considered natural because they were implicitly made by a person. Although yes, I think your diet can be capable of not containing more than the exception of big bites from weeds and animals that have died for natural reasons – if yours is, because we probably need to talk.
As this happens, the dictionary definition does not regulate the food labels: the Food and Medication Agency (FDA). And what does “natural” mean according to the FDA? In fact, not much. According to its website, FDA has no definition of “natural” as it appears on food labels and is willing to let marketing professionals use, until food contains added colors, artificial flavors or synthetic materials. So, apart from getting to know what's not In a box that proudly proclaims its contents “in the form!” You don't really know much about what the in it.
But what about natural and artificial flavors?
True, this leads to natural and artificial flavors, which are expressions that are defined and regulated by the FDA. First of all, it helps to understand what the FDA defines as a “aroma”. According to 101.22. Platoon Title 21 of the Code of Federal Regulation (21cffr)), an annual codification of the rules of the FDA, the taste is all ingredients with “a significant function in foods rather than food than nutrition”. So, although beef itself has a lot of flavors, its nutritional contribution to food is quite significant that it is not considered flavoring. But the extract of beef, which is added in small quantities, would be considered a taste only with little or no nutritional value.
As for the natural verse artificial artificial, the FDA says that natural taste is a “spice, fruit or fruit, vegetable or vegetable juice, edible yeast, herbal, bark, bud, root, leaf or similar vegetable material, meat, seafood, poultry, poultry. Basically, the natural taste comes from a plant or animal. The artificial aroma, on the other hand, is not from a plant or animal source, but comes from scratch.
Is the natural better than the artificial?
On the surface, food -aroma from the plant or animals looks more desirable than an artificial. But the beliefs, however, are to be assumed that are not always controlled.
The first problem is that not all that comes from a natural source is guaranteed to be good. For example, cyanide can be extracted from bitter almonds, but I would not recommend that they eat. Of course, no one can allow cyanide to use it as a food additive, but the basic idea remains that extracts from plant or animal sources cannot be considered automatically safer or more desirable.
Meanwhile, artificial flavors are not essentially bad. At the scientific level, an artificially manufactured flavor is completely indistinguishable from the same compound from the natural source. As Gertrude Stein could say, vanillin vanillin vanillin.
But there are other reasons that do not make too much sets in “natural” flavors. Let's look at the castoreum, a secretion that comes from two castor bags under the beaver tail, directly next to an anal gland. (Already saliva.) It is classified as a natural food additive, but it comes from an animal source, but as you probably figured out, they do not appreciate the beaver-butt flavor it gives to the food. No, the castoreum is tasteful and smell like vanillas, which gives bakery goods, frozen milk treatments and puddings. Yum! Just like mother used to!
Obviously, Castoreum is a very rare food additive, but it's still a very good example – no matter whether the aroma source is natural or artificial, it eventually does not highlight what it is or something you can expect to find your food.