[♪INTRO] If somebody gives you the choice between two
tasty-looking snack cakes -- but one is labeled ‘naturally flavored’, and the other ‘artificially
flavored’ -- most people would probably go with the natural one. It sounds better. Who wants to eat food that’s fake? I like real food. But those labels can be pretty misleading. In fact, the flavorings could be chemically
identical. There are rules to what gets labeled “natural”
or “artificial,” but they’re pretty subtle. And you definitely don’t need to avoid artificial
flavors to stay healthy or be eco-friendly. The only reason you might want to opt for
the natural version in some cases is its … just, its flavor? In the US, artificial and natural flavors
are defined by the Food and Drug Administration, because that’s the agency that gets a say
in how companies market and label their foods. So first, the term “flavors” itself refers
to ingredients that are in the food mainly for their taste, rather than any nutritional
value. So an apple in an apple pie would certainly
be adding to the overall flavor, but it would not technically be considered a flavor or
flavoring. And the FDA considers something a ‘natural’
flavor if it comes from a plant or animal. That source could be virtually anything: fruit,
bark, herbs, veggies, meats. The list is long. But if it’s made from a plant or animal,
it’s natural. If not, it’s artificial. It does get a little more complicated than
that, but in the vast majority of cases, the difference between the two is only the source. We’re sticking to specifics of the US here,
but plenty of other countries differentiate these flavors along the same lines, so you’ll
see similar claims on their food packaging. Seems simple enough, but if you think about
how we experience flavor, you can see why this whole binary system the FDA has cooked
up is not necessarily all that useful. Because what makes your favorite chocolate
chip cookies so delicious comes down to the molecules you taste and smell, not where those
molecules come from. They’re chemicals, whether they come from
natural sources or are made from scratch in a lab. And in many cases, the molecules in natural
and artificial flavors are exactly the same — down to the placement of each atom and
bond. That’s because for a lot of common flavors,
we know the main chemical behind them, and whether you purify it from fruit or make it
synthetically, a compound is a compound is a compound. Take the vanilla you might use when you bake
cookies. The main flavor component of vanilla -- and
the one we recognize as having that sweet, characteristic taste -- is a chemical called
vanillin. You can naturally extract it from vanilla
beans by soaking them in water and alcohol. Or, you can make the exact same chemical in
the lab. If you go the all-natural route, expect to
pay big bucks, though, because vanilla beans are the fruits of finicky tropical orchids. They’re a huge pain to grow and harvest. And vanilla is the world’s most popular
flavor, we cannot grow enough beans to flavor everything we want using only the real stuff. There is another natural way to get vanilla
flavor, with something called castoreum, but that’s not likely to be a fan favorite. That’s because it comes from the castor
sacs of beavers, which are located down near their tails. Basically, flavoring via beaver butt. Milking beavers for their secretions is not
exactly a high-volume industry either, so castoreum is too expensive to put in most
foods. But in the lab, you can make the same vanillin
in huge batches and for much less money by doing some fancy chemistry on paper pulp or
petroleum derivatives. That may sound less appetizing than getting
it from the beans, but remember: the molecule you get at the end is exactly the same. And, it’s how we’re able to vanilla-fy
most of the foods we eat. So maybe don’t write off artificial vanilla
just because it’s not natural. You’ll save some big bucks. Then there are also some misconceptions about
the environmental impact. Counterintuitive as it might sound, natural
flavorings aren’t always so great for nature. They can have much bigger environmental footprints
than their artificial counterparts. Take massoia lactone, a chemical that tastes
like coconut, which you can find in the bark of certain trees in Southeast Asia. The tricky part is if you strip off the bark
to get it, you kill the tree. So, as much as we might want to have that
lovely pina colada flavor, the natural version is really inefficient and unsustainable. Whereas synthetic chemists can whip up massoia
lactone in the lab, no tree stripping necessary. Granted, artificial flavorings aren’t perfect
for the planet either. They’re often made from oil, and can require
special materials that aren’t environmentally-friendly. Production can also create wastewater. Still, that’s usually better than killing
entire groves of trees or going through thousands of kilos of fruit in search of specific flavor
compounds. There is one major downside to keeping things
strictly in the lab, though: the taste. Because while synthetic vanillin is the same
molecule you’ll find in the stuff from vanilla beans, real vanilla has hundreds of other
compounds that subtly change the flavor. Artificial vanilla is a pretty good substitute
because around 80% of vanilla flavor comes from that one vanillin compound. Most people can’t tell the difference. But other flavors are much harder to replicate. Artificial strawberry might be delicious,
for example, but if you think about it, it doesn’t really taste like strawberries. That’s because you simply can’t reproduce
that flavor very well with one or two chemicals. It’s super complex. So, the purity you get with artificial methods
may sometimes make for less-sophisticated flavors. On the other hand, it also means that those
flavors are better-known to scientists, and more rigorously tested. If this runs counter to your intuition, you’re
not alone. Packages proudly proclaiming ‘no artificial
flavors’ are trying to appeal to the common feeling that substances from Mother Nature
are inherently safer and better than ones invented and produced by people. That’s called the naturalistic fallacy. But nature isn’t infallible, and there’s
all kinds of stuff out there that’s natural, but will also super kill you. Just because a flavoring comes from a plant
or animal doesn’t mean it’s safer or healthier. Which is why US flavor regulations apply to
both natural and artificial flavors. It’s a system called Generally Recognized
As Safe, or GRAS. Basically, back in the mid-20th century, the
FDA decided that food additives should be tested, although they could be exempted from
review if experts already agreed that the substance was safe. Since the rules took full effect in the late
1950s, just two flavors have been banned, one natural and one artificial: calamus, which
comes from a plant also known as sweet root; and cinnamyl anthranilate, a synthetic compound
that gives a grape or cherry flavor. Some flavorings have raised other types of
health flags, like diacetyl, the artificial buttery flavoring in microwave popcorn. If it’s inhaled in extremely large amounts
— like if you work in a popcorn factory and don’t use protective equipment — it
can cause a lung disease known as popcorn lung. But eating it isn’t a problem, so we still
use it. In theory, it’s still possible that some
flavors we use have minor negative health effects we just don’t know about, even with
this testing system. One complication is that the evidence is summarized
by an industry group. But since the rules apply to both types of
flavors, there’s no reason to be extra suspicious of the artificial ones. Another part of artificial flavoring’s bad
reputation comes from the fact that it’s in processed foods, which are less healthy
for you — they’re often high in sugar and fat while also being low in fiber and
nutrients. But that’s not the flavoring’s fault. And of course, natural flavoring is used for
the exact same thing. Perhaps the most misleading example of this
is orange juice. Americans used to get most of their orange
juice from concentrate, but these days, we tend to buy it in cartons where the juice
doesn’t need to be diluted. It seems like a fresher option, and companies
have marketed it that way to get a premium price. But the juice isn’t as fresh as they make
it sound. Because of the realities of large-scale production,
the juice ends up sitting in tanks for months at a time. To keep it from spoiling, producers pasteurize
it and also remove all the oxygen in a process called deaeration. To be fair, that processing is important to
keep the juice safe to drink. But it also removes a bunch of the nicer flavor
compounds that make freshly squeezed juice so refreshing. The juice might not be from concentrate, but
companies still re-flavor it right before it’s put in the carton, with what people
in the industry call juice packs. The packs are a mix of flavors, usually from
oranges, orange oil, or orange essence. So technically, they have natural sources. But that doesn’t mean the flavor is coming
from freshly-squeezed orange juice, or that the juice is somehow less processed and healthier
because the flavorings are natural. Once you find out what the terms “natural”
and “artificial” really mean, you start to see this type of misleading marketing everywhere. But if you think it’s confusing now, just
wait a few years. Because biotech is getting in on flavorings,
blurring the lines even more. Companies are trying to come up with new ways
to make flavors that still count as ‘natural’ under current labeling regulations -- even
though the source may be bacteria or yeast, rather than any recognizable plant or animal. With genetic engineering, you can program
microbes to produce certain flavor molecules, then isolate the molecules and use them just
like other flavorings. That could be a more efficient and eco-friendly
solution in some cases, especially for hard-to-source flavor compounds. But in a way, it would make the labeling claims
on food packaging even more meaningless. Like, is that all-natural vanilla flavor from
vanilla beans or a very special strain of yeast? If you wanted the natural stuff for the more
nuanced flavor, you’d have no way of knowing what you were getting. For now, just don’t be fooled by claims
that sticking to natural flavors is healthier or better for the environment. Tastes and flavors are based on chemistry,
and a lot of the time, the artificial ones are just as good. Thanks for watching this episode of SciShow! If you’re interested in learning more about
flavor chemistry, you can check out one of our previous episodes, about 5 chemicals that
are in everything you eat. [♪OUTRO]
