By Donna Berry, Contributing Editor
FDA disqualifies numerous ingredients from ever being perceived as natural by labeling them as artificial or synthetic in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). Only one ingredient gets the descriptor “natural” per FDA: flavors.
Natural flavors in the United States are defined in 21 CFR 101.22, as “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.”
Making natural flavors
“One of the more-popular methods of natural flavor component production is distillation of essential oils,” says Ed Krutal, manager of flavor development, Robertet Flavors Inc., Piscataway, NJ. “With this process, the essential oils from a plant are recovered by distilling and collecting the volatile components using heat.
“Another common process is referred to as cold pressing, or extracting, where the volatile portion of a plant, typically citrus fruits, can be collected by mechanically squeezing the components from either the peels or pulp of the fruit,” continues Krutal. “With some raw materials, fermentation techniques are employed. In this process, ingredients are formed by microorganisms and yeasts, resulting in desirable flavoring components. Natural enzymes can also be used as catalysts to form high-impact aroma chemicals from various plants.”
A different approach is used when sourcing savory flavors. “Savory-type flavors such as chicken and meat can be formed under controlled conditions by selecting precursors normally found in these foods and thermally reacting them in a pressurized vessel at elevated temperatures,” says Krutal.
“Most of the time, all of these individual natural aromatic components are assembled in a particular order to simulate the desired food item,” says Krutal. “In short, it can be compared to assembling an aromatic jigsaw puzzle comprised of many components to get the final picture.”
Labeling requirements
“There are basically two ways of labeling natural flavors at the industrial level,” says Simon Poppelsdorf, vice president of research and development for flavors, Bell Flavors & Fragrances, Northbrook, IL. “Let’s take mandarin, for example. One way to label it is ‘mandarin flavor, natural,’ and the other is ‘mandarin flavor WONF, natural.’ In the first case, all flavor ingredients are solely derived from mandarin, whereas in the second case, WONF stands for ‘with other natural flavors.’”
Steve Wolf, director of flavor applications, Robertet, adds: “If a flavor manufacturer calls the natural flavor Macintosh apple, then Macintosh apple components must be part of the natural flavor. Further, if ‘WONF’ is not declared, then the natural flavor must be 100% ‘from the named fruit,’ an attribute abbreviated as ‘FTNF.’” Both of these scenarios exclude the solvent.
“We’ve recently introduced a natural signature citrus flavor line that comes very close to specific fruit varieties, but are not 100% FTNF,” Wolf adds. He also notes that his company has been seeing interest in a new line of nectar flavors. “Nectars are particularly beloved by Hispanics, but the fruits are flavors everyone loves, such as apricot, mango, pear and peach,” he says.
