What are artificial colors and flavors made out of?
The terms ‘natural’ and ‘artificial’ when applied to foodstuffs have a very specific legal meaning in most countries. I am familiar with the Canadian definitions. These definitions apply equally to colours and flavours, although my discussion is oriented to flavours. Artificial flavourings are manufactured products, the result of combining various chemical compounds that are legally considered safe for consumption. An artificial flavour may be chemically the same as a natural one – simply produced in a different fashion. A natural flavour is extracted from a naturally-occurring substance. These may be blended with other natural flavours to produce a final product. Natural flavourings may contain ingredients that a person might not immediately relate to the target flavour. The terms natural and artificial simply refer to the source of the ingredients. An artificial flavouring may contain natural ingredients, but a natural flavouring cannot contain anything artificial. The addition of ev
