The Case Against Natural Flavors
Chances are, if you’ve looked at the packaging for a snack you’ve purchased or a flavored water, you’ve seen an ingredient listed called “natural flavors”. It sounds innocent enough – it’s natural, right? But what exactly are “natural flavors”? I personally started looking into this issue after consistently getting a headache when I drank a carbonated water with only two ingredients: water and natural flavors. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) defines natural flavors as those that are derived from animal or plant materials, unlike artificial flavors, which are defined as those being derived from chemicals in a lab (1). However, natural flavors can also use chemicals to derive the final flavoring, as long as the process is performed on a natural substance derived from animal or plant materials (1). Natural flavors can actually end up containing up to 250 chemically derived ingredients, which could include artificial components, but only need to include the term “natural flavors” on the packaging (1).
Have you ever wondered what, exactly, is in the imitation vanilla extract you see in stores? Or in the creamy vanilla ice cream you enjoy? It could very well be a natural flavor called castoreum. Castoreum is a vanilla flavoring substitute, but it’s made using secretions from the anal glands and castor sacs of beavers (2). This flavoring is used as a substitute for vanilla flavoring in beverages, dairy products, candy, baked goods, and meat products, and because the flavor is derived from an animal product, it can be defined as a natural flavor by FDA standards (3). To be clear, according to the FDA, there is nothing unsafe about castoreum and it’s long been listed on the generally recognized as safe (GRAS) list of foods and flavorings, but that doesn’t necessarily help the “ick” factor that many people feel when learning this information about foods that they enjoy (3). Why would you have any reason to believe that delicious vanilla flavor came from a beaver?
“Ick” factor aside, what about allergens or dietary restrictions? The Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act (FALCP) requires food and beverage manufacturers to list 8 major allergens that could be in natural flavors, including wheat, peanuts, milk, egg, soy, fish, tree nuts, and crustacean shellfish, but does not require labeling for less common allergens not on that list (4). So, if you’re a vegan, vegetarian, or have an allergy to something less common like avocados or mangos, you really have no way to know if a food with natural flavors is okay for you to eat.
So how are we as consumers supposed to know what’s in our food and understand what we consume? The short answer is that based on the guidelines in place today, we can’t. The FDA works to make sure the food we consume is safe, but as consumers, we should also have the right to know exactly what is in our food, and we shouldn’t need to avoid foods and beverages because the labeling on the package isn’t clear or complete on the ingredient list. According to the Environmental Working Group, natural flavors are the fourth most common ingredient on the 80,000 food labels they’ve examined, and it shows up on 20% of those foods, so it can be difficult to avoid packaged foods with natural flavors (5).
In 2015 and 2016, the FDA requested public comment on the term “natural”, if it was appropriate for the FDA to define the term, and if so, how it should be defined and how it should be used on food labels (6). The FDA received 7,687 comments from the public, though it’s not clear from my research if any action was taken or changes were made based on those comments.
I still haven’t figured out why I get headaches every time I drink said carbonated water with “natural flavors”. And I likely never will, as the company that makes the water is under no requirement to spell out what they’re putting in the water to give it the flavor listed on the can. This experience is precisely why I try not to drink beverages or eat food that have natural flavors listed, as I have no idea what I could be ingesting. I have no doubt it’s “safe”, in that I won’t be poisoned or experience any near-term negative health effects, but I’m not quite sure that’s enough for me.
Based on the regulations in place today, the best thing we can do is avoid foods with natural flavors on the label, but we need to demand more from the FDA and that they close the loophole of natural flavors so that manufacturers are required to disclose exactly what is in packaged foods and beverages.
References
(1) Goodman, MJ. The ‘Natural’ vs. ‘Natural Flavors’ Conflict in Food Labeling: A Regulatory Viewpoint. Food and Drug Law Journal; 2017; 72(1): 78–102. Available from: https://www.jstor.org/stable/26661129
(2) Kennedy, CR. The Flavor Rundown: Natural vs Artificial Flavors. Harvard University Blog; 2015 [internet]. Available from: https://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2015/the-flavor-rundown-natural-vs-artificial-flavors/
(3) Burdock, GA. Safety assessment of castoreum extract as a food ingredient. International journal of toxicology; 2007; 26(1): 51-5. doi:10.1080/10915810601120145. Available from:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/10915810601120145
(4) Singer SR. Attention Allergy Sufferers: Beware of Natural Flavors. Food Safety News; 2015 [internet]. Available from: https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2015/12/attention-allergy-sufferers-beware-of-natural-flavors/
(5) Environmental Working Group (EWG). Natural vs Artificial Flavors [internet]. Available from: https://www.ewg.org/foodscores/content/natural-vs-artificial-flavors/#:~:text=In%20other%20words%2C%20%E2%80%9Cnatural%20flavor,more%20frequently%20on%20food%20labels
(6) Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Use of the Term Natural on Food Labeling [internet]; 2018. Available from: https://www.fda.gov/food/food-labeling-nutrition/use-term-natural-food-labeling