Natural vs. Artificial Flavors: What's The Difference?

General Mills has announced that they will be getting rid of all artificial ingredients. What are artificial flavors anyways?

Read More:
General Mills to drop artificial ingredients in cereal
"General Mills is dropping artificial colors and flavors from its cereals, the latest company to respond to a growing desire for food made with ingredients people see as natural."

Ask Umbra: What are "natural flavors" anyway?

What is the difference between artificial and natural flavors?
"Natural and artificial flavors are defined for the consumer in the Code of Federal Regulations."

Flavors & Fragrances - Demand and Sales Forecasts, Market Share, Market Size, Market Leaders
"The US market for flavors and fragrances will grow 4.6 percent yearly to $7.1 billion in 2017."
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[AdultsSwim]

I love how you just gloss over the whole vanilla, beaver thing. I'm not sure I will look at ice cream the same again

[michaelflynn]

I will never look at vanilla the same again.

[qqq]

They had to tongue a lot of animal butts before they found a good vanilla. I can just imagine a guy who believed in all his heart that you could get vanilla flavor from an animals butt and made it his life's work to find it.

[lt]

It annoys me so much when people say things are bad because they're made up of chemicals. LITERALLY EVERYTHING IS MADE UP OF CHEMICALS.

[TheNerdWizard]

I hate it when people say if it's natural, it's good for you. Poison berries are natural, does that means it's good to eat? Of course not! Rocks are natural, yet we don't see people munching on rocks for obvious reasons. Saying it's natural should not be the sole reason for consuming something.

[elietheprof]

Some natural flavors are ridiculously expensive and resource-intensive. For example, real vanilla beans. It's far more efficient to produce the same substance (vanillin) naturally from sawdust. This is cheaper & easier on the environment, and the final product tastes just as good. And no beavers are harmed in the process.

[Amphibiot]

I was brought here by Trace talking about asbestos. Now this video wants to send me onwards to Laci.. How about no?

[matteo]

2:58 Captions: "And the next time you drink a vanilla latte, just think, you're probably taking a nice sip of beaver butt juice."

[drummondjess]

Hold on did she just breeze over "that natural vanilla flavor is known to come from the anal glands of beavers", known to who!?! Funny how "natural" flavors really mean "naturally comes from anywhere"

[cobinizer]

In our universe, words like natural, unnatural, or artificial are almost meaningless. If something exists in nature, it is built from smaller and smaller bits of... nature.

[DakuHonoo]

you forgot the very deadly dihydrogen monoxide

[ryanmiller]

Just remember that some of the chemicals that make up these artificial flavors, while they are synthesizing the natural flavor could be potentially toxic and concentrated form. Take for example, the chemicals that make up the artificial popcorn butter flavoring scene in movie theaters. That stuff in concentrated form has been known to be very abrasive on the lungs, causing fibroid tissue to form in them. Oil of wintergreen in pure form is highly toxic, because when it is metabolized by the body, it forms chemicals that are akin to aspirin. And everyone knows that an aspirin overdose causes thinning of the blood. In natural form, these chemicals are much less concentrated. Speaking of which, I wonder where they get the chemicals to synthesize chocolate flavor?

[PTMG]

Almond flavor from apricot pits isn't all that weird.
Both the almond fruit and the apricot are drupes (fruit with a single seed surrounded by a bony pit)
They are more closely related than you might think. It would be like getting pear flavoring from apples, or lemon flavoring from limes.

Also banana flavoring doesn't taste like bananas, because the bananas we eat today aren't the same bananas that people ate when banana flavoring was first being produced.
Those bananas went extinct, but there's not really a reason to change an artificial flavor.

[iambumpy]

I'd just like to give a shout out to everything that died or was harmed in the trial and error process of determining whether or not these substances will harm us or not, though I know it's still an ongoing process.

[man_on_wheelz]

the sells of vanilla ice cream have just declined...

[lightsier]

Banana candy does taste like bananas, it taste like the Gros Michael that went extinct, not todays Cavendish.  Also being scared of something because it's created in a lab is silly.

[KangarooBoxxerr]

Shouldn't natural flavors mean that the flavor you taste in the food originates from the food itself and isn't chemically made in way that would make it less healthy for the consumer?

[TMcB]

I would say that most flavours used in food are perfectly fine but artificial and natural colours are a different matter. Artificial flavours are usually derived from esters or aldehydes which are chemically similar or identical to the natural ones. Artificial colours are often chemically quite different to natural colours so watch out for things like Sunset Yellow; artificial colours can be derived from coal!

[VampireKan]

They need to put these other videos in the description. I cant "click to watch" on a phone and have no idea where to find it.

[carval]

People in my place always complain about chemical food and drink. they never though they always drink a chemical called H2O