A Tasteful PursuitFlavor Purchasing Guidelines

A Tasteful PursuitFlavor Purchasing Guidelines

by Tom Leveen

For the average consumer, the initial purchase of a functional food is oftenbased on its touted health benefits, but customers will only keep coming back ifthe taste is enjoyable. When it comes to natural or functional foods, thosefortified with vitamins, minerals and other nutrients are notoriously less thanpalatable, so flavors and masking agents are quickly promoted to top priorityonce the function or purpose of a product is determined. Almost all foodproducts, natural or otherwise, use flavors or masking agents. For functionalfood manufacturers, there are several aspects of flavor formulation to keep inmind.

One consideration in choosing a flavor application may be whether the flavoritself has healthful benefits the manufacturer can then tout on the label andother marketing. Cost will also play a large part in determining what company tohire and what formulation to use in a product.

A finished food manufacturer must also remember there are regulations forflavor just like any consumable. Flavoring is specifically regulated under Title21 of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). As with other branches of thenatural products industry, flavorists also have a go-between connecting them andFDA. The Flavor Extract Manufacturers Association (FEMA) is the flavorindustries representative, taking a lead role in working with FDA to ensurethe safe use of flavor ingredients. Flavor ingredients are usually GRAS(generally recognized as safe) for the intended purpose of being added to foods,but can be specifically regulated to manage specific uses. However, since uselevels are often low, the potential health risk involved with flavors is lowerthan for many other food additives.

With all these variables, manufacturers may be surprised to know the processby which a food manufacturer has his flavor designed is fairly universal.Flavorists ask what type of product the flavor will be used in, such as a bar.The flavorist will ask a series of other questions, such as: Does themanufacturer prefer natural or artificial flavor? Is WONF (with other naturalflavors) acceptable?

Once the flavor is defined and created, the flavorist and manufacturer worktogether on refining the flavor. The flavor is then modified pursuant to themanufacturers feedback.

When designing a flavor, manufacturers and flavorists first consider productapplication. A flavor used in a food formulation that will be frozen must beformulated differently than one that will be baked. Different applicationsaffect the notes which come through the finished product. The formulation ofa flavor is specific to the application, said Wendy Fischler, vicepresident of sales and marketing at Affinity Flavors Inc. A flavor you use ina beverage will be different than in a bar. A lot of it has to do with how theapplication is produced.

Baked foods will inherently bear a different taste than pasteurized drinks,for example. Those products could both be raspberry flavored, but would requiredifferent forms of the flavor. We dont just pull a flavor off the shelfand say, This is our raspberry, Fischler added. There could be 50different raspberry flavors out there.

Manufacturers with an eye toward marketing their foods to natural productsconsumers must realize a flavor derived from a fruit or similar source is notautomatically deemed a natural flavor. The natural flavors claim may be adraw to consumers, but the reality of natural may not be what consumersexpect. One major misconception in the consumer market is that despite theattractive and appealing moniker natural, there are not necessarily anyhealth advantages to using natural flavors.

Natural flavors are defined as those derived from the flavor being created,and all natural flavors are derived from various plant and animal sources. Inthe case of a natural raspberry flavor, for example, it would be chemicalcomponents that are naturally derived from raspberry. Orange flavors may betaken from the peel or juice of oranges. Various oils or other extracts aretaken from spices, herbs, barks, botanicals, leaves, roots, fruits, flowers andmore. Isolates from these raw forms may also be used. For example, clove spiceprovides the essential oil of cloves, and eugenol is the dominant naturalchemical in clove oil. Eugenol, an aromatic chemical and fragrance, can then beisolated for more specific uses.

Biotechnology and other accepted reaction techniques yield additionalnatural flavoring, said Richard Feagin, chief flavorist of WILD Flavors Inc.Processing flavors using natural ingredients provide flavors similar to thoseproduced in common cooking. Meat products do not take on the flavor and savor werecognize until the product is heated or cooked. Our industry has learned fromthese processes, enabling us to produce the flavor more efficiently andeconomically.

Using a natural flavor does not automatically imbue the product withmore benefits, nor does artificial flavor mean the flavor is void of meritorworse, outright unhealthy. Artificial only means the flavor is formulated bytaking unrelated items that have been synthetically created. Sometimes peoplehear artificial flavor and think of a preservative, Fischler said. Thatsnot what it is. Artificial flavors are not necessarily bad things. In fact,artificial flavors can taste better than natural and are most often lessexpensive to produce.

Then there is WONF, or with other natural flavors, which means if acompany is creating a raspberry flavor, it may use derivatives only from nature,but it might not necessarily be a product from raspberry itself. A natural andan artificial flavor may even contain almost exactly the same chemicals, but beproduced using different methods. The banana flavor of amyl acetate is naturalwhen distilled from bananas with a solvent; however, if amyl alcohol is mixedwith vinegar and sulfuric acid as a catalyst, amyl acetate becomes an artificialflavor.

When it comes to choosing between natural and artificial flavors, the choiceis often a matter of cost effectiveness and purpose. Natural flavors arepreferred in many product categories, Feagin said. In other categories,artificial flavors provide the performance and cost goals. There are abundantopportunities in both categories. Combinations of natural and artificial arefrequently used.

However, regardless of natural, artificial or WONF, there is disagreement onthe nutritional aspect of flavors. A flavor does not have nutritional value,Fischler said. It contributes to the flavoring of a product that hasnutritional value.

In contrast to this opinion, Feagin refers to historical flavormanufacturing. There has long been a pharmaceutical connection to the flavorindustry, he said. Many of the flavoring ingredients used today originatedfrom earlier medical or pharmaceutical usages.

Linda Harrell, strategic marketing communications for Crystals InternationalInc. (CII), agreed with Feagins assessment. CIIs powder form freeze-driedfruit flavors are functional based on individual fruit characteristics andhealth benefits. Fruits have the benefits of antioxidants, vitamin C andother health enhancers, depending upon the fruit variety, Harrell said.

Once the final product is formulated, manufactured, packaged and ready forpurchase on the store shelf, there are only two things the consumer willultimately return for: underlying nutritional value and a good flavor.