What are natural flavorings, and how are they different from artificial flavorings?
Natural flavorings come from natural sources—such as cinnamon bark, coffee, citrus, blueberries, and almonds—that are used in small amounts to flavor foods. They may also come from meat, seafood, poultry, eggs, dairy, and fermented foods. Artificial flavorings, on the other hand, are combinations of synthetic chemicals that often match flavors found in nature. Flavorings have no calories or nutrients. The term “natural” is somewhat misleading because natural flavorings aren’t just squeezed out of the plant or animal material; they undergo lab processing to extract the flavor chemicals. Moreover, there’s often little or no difference between natural and artificial flavorings, since they may contain the same key ingredients. For example, the chemical in bananas that provides their recognizable taste, amyl acetate, can be either distilled from bananas (called “banana flavor” or “natural banana flavor”) or manufactured using vinegar, alcohol, and an acid (“artificial banana flavor”). Eithe
