Just What's in Those “Natural Flavors” Anyway...? By Dar Veverka, VRG@vrg.org
The exact definition of natural flavorings from Title 21, Section 101, part 22 of the Code of Federal Regulations is as follows:
"The term natural flavor or natural flavoring means 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."
In other words, natural flavors can be pretty much anything approved for use in food.
It's basically impossible to tell from a label what is in natural flavors unless the company has specified it on the label. A few of the vegetarian & vegan-oriented companies are doing this now, but the overwhelming majority of food manufacturers do not.
Why do companies hide ingredients under "natural flavors"? It's considered a way of preserving the product's identity & uniqueness. Sort of like a "secret recipe" - they worry that if people knew what the flavorings were, then someone would be able to duplicate their product.
So what's a veggie to do?
Call the company. Ask them what's in the flavorings. Chances are they will not be able to tell you, or they will be unwilling to tell you.* But the more they hear this question, the more likely they are to become concerned about putting a clarifying statement on their labels. It does work in some cases (remember what happened when enough people wrote to the USDA about the organic standards), although it tends to take awhile. We have already had several large food companies call us concerning their natural flavors & how to word it on their labels if they have vegetarian or vegan flavorings. They called because it had come to their attention that this was a concern for veggies.
MY ADDED NOTE: You will find, for example, candies such as “Tootsie Rolls” and “Skittles”, commonly eaten by devotee children, are listed to contain beef and pork fat as well as gelatin (Skittles), yet on the candy labels themselves, it only says “Natural Flavors”. Ditto Parmesan cheese last time I looked, but now the Kraft brand is kosher.
LATER NOTE: On Dec. 2, 2009, Tootie Roll Company Goes Kosher
The following websites contain (sometimes changing) long lists of information about ingredients found in food and drugs: http://www.theisraelofgodrc.com/CUPL.html (click on the first link)
http://www.geari.org/ingredients.html (scroll down for the actual list)
http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~veggie/nonveg/cheese.html
MORE CONTAMINANTS TO WATCH OUT FOR:
Avoid vanilla extract, it will always have alcohol in it. “According to a 1992 USDA study, alcohol is not burned off in cooking. Anywhere from 4 percent to 85 percent of the alcohol is retained on the dish depending on the method of cooking.”
"Suräkrtam means things becoming impure simply by touching liquor. Liquor is so impure. Just like you have got a very big pot of milk, but if you put one drop of wine in it, it becomes immediately impure. You can analyze chemically—immediately impure. That surä, liquor, has become our daily affair. We are so impure. And bhüta-hatyä, and killing of animals. The modern civilization means large-scale arrangement for killing animals and large-scale arrangement for distilling liquor, especially in the Western countries. And India is also now following. So this is the position of the world." --SB 1.8.52 lecture, LA, 5/14/73
Learn how to prepare vanilla sugar instead or how to use vanilla beans.
More things to watch out for: rennet, lecithin, saccharin, corn syrup...
Lecithin is derived from eggs unless it is specifically labeled "soy lecithin". Saccharin is derived from petroleum. It is not a food at all. Corn syrup was recently in the news as containing small amounts of mercury.
LATER NOTE AND CONCLUSION (2017): this page sparked an effort to do more research about factory foods and the contaminants present in them. I can no longer eat chocolate after reviewing my findings. I tried to a couple times when given cake and chocolate chips in icecream, but just the thought of what I had learned made me unable to finish what looked otherwise as very delectable treats! And if it isnt fit for offering, why should I eat it? Especially as devotees, we should find it hard to offer to the deities anything that is factory processed. Krishna deserves only the best, and what that finally boils down to is grinding our own flour, besan, oats, etc. And eventually producing them as well. Whole grains, unprocessed foods and so on are a lot purer and fit for offering.