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These 6 artificial flavors are being ordered out of the food supply. But which foods are they in?

Label shows the ingredients on a bottle of Coca-Cola. "Artificial and natural flavors" have become ubiquitous terms on food labels, helping create vivid tastes that would otherwise be lost in mass production. As the science behind them advances, however, some are calling for greater transparency about their safety and ingredients. Label shows the ingredients on a bottle of Coca-Cola. "Artificial and natural flavors" have become ubiquitous terms on food labels, helping create vivid tastes that would otherwise be lost in mass production. As the science behind them advances, however, some are calling for greater transparency about their safety and ingredients.

By Staff and Wire Reports November 13, 2018 4 min read

No accounting for 6 artificial tastes

Six artificial flavors are being ordered out of the food supply in a dispute over their safety, but good luck to anyone who wants to know which cookies, candies or drinks they’re in.

The dispute highlights the complex rules that govern what goes in our food, how much the public knows about it, and a mysterious class of ingredients that has evolved over decades largely outside of public view.

On food packages, hundreds of ingredients are listed simply as natural flavor or artificial flavor. Even in minute amounts, they help make potato chips taste oniony or give fruit candy that twang.

“The food system we have is unimaginable without flavor additives,” said Nadia Berenstein, a historian of flavor science based in New York.