Faking the flavour

The Food Commission. Campaigning for safer, healthier food for all

Embargo: 00.01am Monday 25th February 2008

Published in The Food Magazine issue 80, 25th February 2008

Faking the flavour

Flavouring is a frequently over-looked ingredient which crops up in much of our food and drink. But, why does our food need extra flavourings and what are they made from? Ian Tokelove investigates.

What are flavourings?
Labelling and the law
Are flavourings safe?
The strawberry swizz - The Food Commission survey of strawberry flavour foods and drinks.
Different types of flavouring

There are approximately 2,700 different flavourings currently allowed into our food, but few are ever identified on ingredients lists, other than by the description ‘flavouring(s)’. Unlike food additives they do not need to be identified by their name or a number, so it is impossible to know exactly what is being added to our food and drink.

Safety testing is largely dependent on the companies that make the flavourings, but can we trust them? As flavourings remain unidentified on food products, how could we tell if they did cause problems?

What are flavourings?
Flavourings are purely cosmetic food ingredients with no nutritive value of their own. They are used in processed foods to replace flavours lost during processing or to ‘bump up’ the taste of such foodstuffs.

They can also be used to mask unpleasant flavours caused by other ingredients or additives. Some are artificial and others are derived from natural sources. In their pure, concentrated state they tend to be fairly unpleasant, necessitating the use of protective clothing, goggles and even respirators. However, once diluted sufficiently, they produce a flavour or aroma which encourages consumption of foods and drinks.

Flavourings are used in so many food and drink products that they can be hard to avoid.

Labelling and the law
Specific legislation (and associated guidelines) regarding the use of flavourings are confusing and hard to access, although their use does have to conform with general food law (i.e. they should not be harmful to health). Where guidelines exist, they are haphazard and vary from country to country. Even now, a flavouring that is approved in one country may be unapproved or banned in another.

Back in 1996, the European Parliament ruled that an EU-wide ‘positive list’ of approved flavouring substances should be created. The evaluation process was supposed to take five years but it is still ongoing and is unlikely to be completed until 2009 or 2010.

As a consequence, there is still no positive list of approved flavourings. Even when such a list is published there will be no need to identify flavourings on food products as specific, named ingredients.

The ongoing EU evaluation of flavourings is reliant on the industry providing accurate testing and usage data. In a significant number of incidences the industry has been unable to provide sufficient testing data for evaluation, but in such cases the flavourings have remained on the market until further data is forthcoming.

The Scientific Committee on Food has reported that intake estimates of flavouring substances are, “generally very poor,” because of a lack of data on the concentrations of flavourings in foodstuffs.

Are flavourings safe?
As with all food ingredients, flavourings should be safe for consumption at the quantities in which they are used. However, as flavourings are not identified on food labels, if any associated health problems did occur they would be almost impossible to identify.

Flavourings may have a much wider, indirect effect on our health because of the way in which they are used to improve the appeal of low-nutrient or high fat, sugar, salt (HFSS) foods. Flavourings often replace genuine, nutritious ingredients (a strawberry flavouring is much cheaper than genuine strawberries).

By encouraging the consumption of HFSS foods it is likely that flavourings directly affect our health – and not for the better.

Repeated exposure to flavourings may also negatively affect our reaction to the taste of fresh, unprocessed foods. A sweet, crunchy apple can taste pretty bland and dull when compared to a highly flavoured packet of crisps. Flavourings may thus discourage basic healthy eating, such as the ‘five a day’ consumption of fruit and vegetables.

The strawberry swizz All of the products pictured below appear to contain strawberries, but rather than getting their flavour from real fruit they rely on cheap flavourings. If you want proper strawberries it always pays to check the small print – you may not be getting what you think you are.
Yazoo Strawberry Flavour Milkshake loudly claims it is ‘low in fat’ but neglects to mention it is ‘empty of strawberries’. Flavouring and sugar take the place of real fruit.
Moo Strawberry Flavour Milk is made ‘as simply as we can, with milk straight from our farmers’ lovely cows, packed full of nutrients and natural goodness.’ It is also made with flavouring, colour, stabiliser and sweetener – but not actual strawberries.
Nesquik strawberry flavour milkshake mix is basically sugar (almost 98% we reckon) – fortified with a few vitamins and minerals to make it appear healthy. The ‘scrummy yumminess’ is apparently unaffected by the lack of actual strawberries, and few children will even stop to consider whether this is a good or bad thing. Nestlé actively encourages children to add 2-4 teaspoons to every glass of milk. Would you add four teaspoons of sugar to a cup of tea? Back to top
Ovaltine Max 4 Milk Strawberry milkshake powder (40% sugar) also contains added vitamins and minerals to make it look healthy, and is described as ‘Daily Nutrition’ and ‘wholesome goodness’. However, the closest thing to a strawberry in this product is the colouring, which comes from beetroot.
Alpro Soya Strawberry Flavour Drink. Alpro have added calcium and vitamins but no actual strawberries. Instead, we find sugar and a mix of ‘natural flavouring’ and ‘flavouring’.
ASDA Great Stuff Strawberry Milk has been ‘endorsed by ASDA nutritionists’ – who apparently think children are better off consuming flavourings instead of real fruit. This bottled product contains just 0.6% strawberry juice - meaning there is less than half a teaspoon of juice in the whole bottle. The carton contains no strawberries at all - and yet ASDA have the nerve to call this 'Great Stuff'. Back to top
While’s Strawberry Flavour Shake is fruit free, but that has not stopped them plastering the packaging with images of strawberries. The use of strawberry imagery is only allowed if strawberries are a ‘characterising ingredient’ – so this packaging could well be illegal. However, there is a loophole, as the use of a natural strawberry flavouring would be sufficient to justify the use of such imagery (even though the actual strawberry content would be negligible). This product does not specify the flavouring as either ‘strawberry’ or even as ‘natural’, so we have no way of knowing.
Friji strawberry milkshake – no artificial flavourings in this product, but no strawberries either. Just another ‘natural flavouring’ from an unknown source.
Cranberry, Strawberry and Raspberry Tea Bags with 0.2% strawberry from Sainsbury's; Strawberry and Mango teabags with 1.0% strawberry from Twinnings; and Tesco Fruit Infusion teabags with just 0.2% actual strawberry. Strawberries may feature heavily on the packaging, but appearances can be deceptive. All of these teabags contain larger doses of flavourings than real strawberry fruit. Back to top
This Hartley’s Strawberry Jelly claims to have a 'New Fruitier Taste', but it is always worth checking the small print. This product contains no strawberry at all. The new fruitier taste comes completely from unknown flavourings, not strawberries.
Tesco Kids Strawberry Milk contains both flavours and ‘strawberry juice from concentrate’. Tesco do not say how much real juice there is, but the label does reveal that this milk drink contains more additives than strawberries.
These Jubbly Strawberry ice lollies also make a ‘real fruit juice’ claim. However, it turns out that each lolly contains just 0.6% strawberry juice. Again, the flavour largely comes from unknown flavouring agents, not actual strawberries.
Yoplait’s Yop Strawberry Yogurt apparently comes with ‘full on Calcium’. We wish we could say the same for the fruit content, which comes in at ‘Zero’. This has been coloured with E124, ponceau 4R, one of the suspect artificial colourings featured on the www.actiononadditives.com website. Back to top
This packet of Birds Strawberry Flavour Trifle does at least suggest adding fruit, which is just as well, as the 'strawberry flavour jelly' is coloured with beetroot and the taste provided by unknown flavouring(s)
There is 'no added sugar' in this Sainsbury's Fizzy Strawberry drink. Unfortunately there is also 'no added strawberry'. The label claims that Sainsbury's 'care about quality and that's why we have improved our soft drinks'. The drink does contain fruit and vegetable concentrates, but these are carrot and blackcurrant - the only strawberry is the one on the label.
Ambrosia Strawberry flavour custard. The lid of this dessert says 'NO artificial colours or flavours' and 'NO artificial sweeteners or preservatives'. What it doesn't say is 'NO strawberries' - which would be equally true.
Nesquik Magic Straws 'magics (sic) the goodness of milk into strawberry flavour milk!' The straws are mostly sugar, with extra artificial sweeteners to really boost the sugary taste. Instead of real strawberry, we find flavourings and a natural colouring, Cochineal Red A, which is made from squashed bugs. Back to top
Strawberry flavour Angel Delight, strawberry flavour Sainsbury's Supreme Dessert and strawberry flavour Heavenly Delight. Lots of sugar, starch and additives - but no strawberries here.
Strawberry sweets. Perhaps unsurprisingly, almost all of the sweets we looked at were strawberry free. Some manufacturers do attempt to make their sweets look healthy by including a very tiny amount of real strawberry juice, but not enough to make any real difference.
Ribena have managed to squeeze in a whopping 6% strawberry juice into their Ribena Strawberry juice drink. They add more sugar than strawberries, meaning that each carton contains nearly eight teaspoons of sugar (31.4g). Ribena contains flavourings and is coloured using extracts of Blackcarrot and Blackcurrant.
Alpen Strawberry & Yogurt Bars contain more sugar, and more vegetable oil, than strawberry, which weighs in at a miserly 1.3% fruit. That is equivalent to just 1/3 of a gram of strawberry in each bar. Flavourings are used to increase the taste. Back to top
The packet of these Go-ahead Strawberry Yogurt Breaks claims that each biscuit is 'packed with juicy sultanas and strawberries'. You may find plenty of sultanas, but you will have to look hard to find the strawberries, which account for just 1.3% of these biscuits. There is 30 times more sugar and 8.5 times more fat in these biscuits than there is strawberry. Flavourings are listed at least three times, but we don't know what they are.
Fruit Bowl School Bars (apple, strawberry and pear) are aimed squarely at mums looking for a healthy product to put in their childrens' lunchboxes. The packet makes a big deal of strawberry imagery, but it turns out that Fruit Bowl have added more vegetable oil to these bars than strawberry juice (1.5%). These bars are 45% sugar (over two teaspoons of sugar in every 20g bar).
We counted 42 strawberries decorating this box of Jordans Frusli All Fruit Strawberry Bars. But inside we found only 0.5% strawberry juice concentrate. These bars are almost totally made from apples, not strawberries. The taste comes from flavourings, not strawberries.

Artificial flavourings
These synthetic flavourings are a cheap alternative to natural flavourings and can also be used to provide flavours which are not found naturally. They are simply labelled as ‘flavouring(s)’.

Natural flavourings
A ‘natural’ flavouring should have been derived from a ‘natural’ source material of vegetable, animal or microbiological origin, but the process by which it is manufactured may be fairly unnatural, using acids, microorganisms or enzymes, for example. Natural flavourings can also come from unexpected ‘natural’ sources, such as carcasses, rose wood, oak wood chips and strawberry leaves.

A natural flavouring in an ‘apple’ product may well be ‘natural’, but the flavouring will not necessarily come from an apple. In general, natural flavourings will not be evaluated for safety by the EU, as they are assumed to be safe. It is worth noting that some natural flavourings would have trouble being accepted as new flavourings if they were presented today. For instance, nutmeg is toxic in large doses.

Natural flavourings are the only flavourings allowed into food certified as ‘organic’, as long as none of the ingredients are derived from genetically modified sources.

Named flavourings
If a flavouring is described as ‘apple flavour’ or ‘natural apple flavour’ it should have come wholly or mostly from genuine apples. During the production process most of the nutritional goodness of the apple will be removed from the final flavouring – so we end up with all the taste but none of the goodness. Named flavourings sound ‘healthier’ though, and many manufacturers now use such flavourings.

Nature-identical flavourings
Nature-identical flavourings are substances that are obtained by synthesis or isolated through chemical processes. Although they may be ‘artificial’ in nature, their chemical composition is identical to that of ‘natural’ flavouring substances, and thus they are known as ‘nature-identical’.

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