NATURAL FLAVOUR AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVOUR

There are 02 types of flavour, Natural Flavour and Artificial Flavour

Natural Flavour

Natural Flavours are produced from materials originated from nature such as fruit, vegetables, spice, herb, meat, seafood, dairy,... etc. The production methods are physical such as extracting, evaporating, distillating,... and biotechnical such as fermenting. There are hundred chemicals in the natural flavour, some of them will be destroyed when exposed in high temperature in baking process, the natural flavour can reduce flavour intensity in products processed with high temperature such as baking or roasting.

Artificial Flavour

It’s classified as Natural Identical Flavour and Artificial Flavour.

Nature-Identical Flavours are human-made aroma compounds that are chemically identical to some substance that can be found in nature. They are synthesized from chemicals or isolated by means of chemical processes.

Artificial flavours are synthesized from chemical substances by man and are not found in nature. Their sensory characteristics mostly resemble that of natural or nature-identical flavorings.

How to create a Flavour

When making a flavour, the flavorist always begins by going to the scientific literature and researching what chemicals nature uses to make the desired flavour. Then he reviews the list of flavour components found in, selects some components and eliminates those chemicals that make little contribution to taste or are not permitted owing to toxicity. (Nature has no restrictions on using toxic chemicals, whereas the flavorist does.) The flavorist then either chooses chemicals that are natural (isolated from nature as described above) or synthetic chemicals (made by people) to make the flavor.

What Flavour do you like?

So is there truly a difference between natural and artificial flavours? Yes. Artificial flavours are simpler in composition and potentially safer because only safety-tested components are utilized. Another difference between natural and artificial flavours is cost.

Consumers pay a lot for natural flavours. But these are in fact no better in quality, nor are they safer, than their cost-effective artificial counterparts.

The Flavor Extract Manufacturers Association (FEMA) has compiled a list of thoroughly vetted flavour compounds that are “generally recognized as safe (GRAS List)”. The FEMA Expert Panel communicates their findings and all scientific data with the FDA, with international scientific and regulatory bodies, and in the scientific literature. Flavor companies are not required to disclose application of flavor ingredients that have already passed this rigorous review, but any novel flavor substances that have not yet made it onto the list require rigorous testing and approval to demonstrate safety before they may be incorporated into consumer products.

(Source: Internet)