"Natural flavoring"?

Question

"Natural flavoring" has always been disconcerting to me... I don't trust what it could mean. In products that I feel fairly certain won't contain animal products, I will bypass the 'natural flavors' concern (usually from vegetarian companies).

Tonight in the grocery store, I picked up a bag of french fries - black pepper flavor to be exact - and read the ingredients. About half way through the list it said "natural flavoring (fish gelatin)." Fish gelatin?!! In fries??! Why?

Anyway, I'm just wondering if anyone knows what the terms are for putting 'natural flavoring' on a label... are there limits to what types of products can be considered natural flavors? I'm assuming allergens would have to be disclosed (as in the listing of fish gelatin), so does that mean that products that only state 'natural flavoring' are safe for me to eat, as a vegan? I avoid them anyway, but it would be interesting to know for sure.

Answer 1

Instead of buying them why not peel, cut and cook your own.  Then you know and won't create more printing that most people could care less about.

Answer 2

"Natural flavors" refers to any flavors derived from plant and/or animal sources (versus artificial flavors, which are just chemicals.)  The only way to discern whether a product is vegan is to look for a notation or logo stating that it's vegan, or to contact the manufacturer and ask what the source of their natural flavors are.  Certain allergens do have to be disclosed, but I don't know the details. Pork is a common allergen and it's not disclosed on Doritos bags although the natural flavors used in Doritos are pork-derived.

Answer 3

those are generally identified as "extracts", if I'm not mistaken...