Natural Flavours Need To Be Listed Entirely

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Transparency Is Vital

There are a number of things in Canada that must be plainly labelled, and cannot be hidden behind secret terms. Bamboo in textiles is an interesting example of this. Manufacturers are no longer allowed to use the word “bamboo” on their clothing or textile products unless it is directly derived from bamboo without the use of heavy processing. Most of the time when bamboo appears in the composition material of clothes, it is bamboo viscose; a regenerated cellulose fibre which is chemically manufactured from bamboo, as opposed to the more sustainable bamboo lyocell. This allows consumers to make an informed choice over the type of bamboo used in their clothes, sheets, and other textiles. The same thing needs to be done for natural flavours. This term is loose, unnecessary, and unfair for consumers.

What Are Natural Flavours?

Natural flavours are food flavourings that are derived from plants or animals. This brings up a serious question: If artificial flavours are made from chemicals in the laboratory, but natural flavours are also extracted from natural sources in  laboratory, does that not essentially make them the same? For natural foods, there is a list of processes that cannot be used in combination with chemical additions such as chemically bleaching, smoking, or oxidation. The problem with that list is that it only concerns the whole food itself, and not the natural flavouring ingredient. Example: a natural strawberry pie is not allowed to be baked with chemical oil. Sounds obvious and clear enough. However, that same “natural” strawberry pie’s natural strawberry flavouring is allowed to be be chemically bleached, used in the pie, and still legally allowed to be labelled as natural flavouring. Not all companies go this far to take advantage of how they can abuse the natural flavours label, but it is important to know.

Short: natural flavours are derived from edible sources of plants and animals, while artificial flavours come from inedible sources.

Why Do Companies Use This Term?

Why would a company use natural strawberry flavours or even simply natural flavours instead of transparently telling consumers exactly what those flavours are? There are 2 main reasons for this:

1) A long list of essences and blends used to make a flavour. The list of blends and products may be too long and complex to list out on a food label. This is an invalid point, as the problem can be simply fixed by not using such a complex flavour in the first place. If, for example, it takes 100 fluids and extractions to get that exact lemon flavour, such company would have been better off using lemon juice to begin with. Far healthier for the consumer, too. That said, the composition list is not always long, nor is it toxic. Sometimes they insist they need to keep it a secret which leads to the second reasoning below.

2)  The recipe for a food product is proprietary and the companies do not want to disclose their secrets. This may sound reasonable at first glance, but it is not for very factual and logical reasonings.

Firstly, even if a cookie company were legally forced to precisely list exactly what all of its ingredients are, it would not result in bankruptcy to that cookie company. Unless, of course, that cookie company has been using ingredients that are illegal in Canada, and refuses to change their recipe. The reason is astonishingly simple: consumers or rivals would not know the exact quantity of such ingredients. Even if they did attempt to replicate it, they would not know the exact heating settings, preparation methods, or other hands-on techniques the cookie company might use to make its cookies the way it does. How would a rival know which soil the ingredients may have been grown in? How much they watered them? How ripened or unripened? Dried or fresh? Tossed in the air? Baked in a very specific oven? Perhaps not even an oven, but maybe even on a flat metal over open fire? The list of possibilities could go potentially go on for very long span of text.

Secondly, there are plenty of companies in existence that plainly list all of their ingredients. These companies have not gone bankrupt. At least not explicitly for the reason of listing their ingredients openly. In fact, for some companies the simplicity and openness of their ingredients is their biggest asset. This catering draws a loyal audience that enjoys the wholeness and simplicity of their products.

Use The Real Deal

Is cheaper better? Sometimes. For a lot of companies, flavourings are easy to produce en masse very cheaply. This makes it easy to churn them out by the millions to rake out big profits. Is it good for the consumer? No. Lemons are not rare. Herbs are not rare. Chocolate, vanilla, strawberries, peaches, many others fruits, vegetable, plants, and animals are not rare. Is it more work to produce and use whole ingredients? Yes, but it is by no means a hard or difficult thing to do. The use of natural flavours that are not actually whole ingredients is entirely unnecessary. Using the original ingredient is healthier and more authentic, adding both flavour and nutrition. 

Should Natural Flavours Be Avoided At All Costs?

No, natural flavours do not need to be avoided at all costs. While many companies use natural flavours that are synthetically extracted, many also do not. The ultimate importance is transparency that allows consumers to know right as soon as they look at a label. One should not have to guess or resort to messaging a company about its ingredients. The consumers should be able to have the information right at their fingertips. A lot of people do not care, and will devour whatever looks good, or tastes good. There are also a lot of people that do care, and want to know exactly what is in their food. Some people in this category even resort to making most things at home, as way of having more control over what they put into their bodies. Transparency does neither side any harm.