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"The term natural flavor or natural flavoring means the essential oil, oleoresin, essence or extractive, protein hydrolysate, distillate, or any product of roasting, heating or enzymolysis, which contains the flavoring constituents derived from a spice, fruit or fruit juice, vegetable or vegetable juice, edible yeast, herb, bark, bud, root, leaf or similar plant material, meat, seafood, poultry, eggs, dairy products, or fermentation products thereof, whose significant function in food is flavoring rather than nutritional."

The new labeling law effective in 2006, The Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act (FALCPA), requires manufacturers to declare if one or more of the 8 major food allergens are contained in a natural flavoring. The top 8 major food allergens are defined as: milk, egg, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, wheat, peanuts and soybeans.

If you are managing food allergies other than the top 8 major food allergens, however, the new law will not be of assistance to you in identifying the sources in any natural flavoring stated on a label.

The FDA does not require companies to disclose ingredients of color or flavor additives so long as all the chemicals in them are considered by the agency to be GRAS ("generally recognized as safe") enabling companies to maintain secrecy of formulas. It also hides the fact that flavors often contain more ingredients than the foods to which they give taste.

A typical artificial strawberry flavor contains over 30 chemicals. According to manufacturer safety data sheets those chemicals cause eye irritation, corneal damage, eye burns, skin irritation, severe / permanent damage to digestive tract, gastrointestinal irritation, gastrointestinal tract burns, CNS depression, neurological effects, liver abnormalities, cardiac abnormalities, or other harm.

Natural flavor, according to the FDA, must be derived entirely from natural sources (herbs, spices, fruits, vegetables, beef, chicken, yeast, bark, roots, etc). Consumers prefer to see natural flavors on a label out of a belief they are more healthful.

Natural flavor is not necessarily more healthful or purer than an artificial flavor. Almond flavor when derived from natural sources may contain traces of hydrogen cyanide, a deadly poison. When derived by mixing oil of clove & amyl acetate, it does not. Natural flavors and artificial flavors are often manufactured at same chemical plants.

Flavor manufacturing may also involve biotechnology, using enzyme reactions, fermentation, & fungal and tissue cultures. Flavors created by these methods are considered natural flavors by the FDA.

In addition to flavor chemicals also think about genetic engineering of food, DNA or gene alteration, and medicines and hormones given to cows, cattle, hogs, and chickens. What affect does it have upon us? Some are suspected causes of cancer or other problems.

When a natural flavor or artificial flavor is added to a food or drink the resultant processed food is no longer natural & is potentially harmful.

Source: http://web.archive.org/web/20030608101921/www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/opa-bckg.html

A gummy substance obtained from legume-family plants, used as a thickener and STABILIZER in commercial food processing.

Siraitia grosvenorii is an herbaceous perennial vine native to southern China and Northern Thailand and best known for its fruit, the luo han guo (simplified Chinese: ???; traditional Chinese: ???; pinyin: luóhàn guo; literally "arhat fruit", monk's fruit or la hán qu? in Vietnamese). It is one of four species in the genus Siraitia. Botanical synonyms include Momordica grosvenorii and Thladiantha grosvenorii. The fruit is one of several that have been called longevity fruit.[1]



The other species of the genus Siraitia are: S. siamensis from Thailand, S. sikkimensis and S. silomaradjae from India, and S. taiwaniana from the Republic of China (Taiwan).



The vine grows to 3 to 5 m long, climbing over other plants by means of tendrils which twine round anything they touch. The narrow, heart-shaped leaves are 10–20 cm long. The fruit is globose, 5–7 cm in diameter, and contains a sweet, fleshy, edible pulp and numerous seeds.



The fruit extract is nearly 300 times sweeter than sugar and has been used as a natural sweetener in China for nearly a millennium due to its flavor and lack of food energy, only 2.3 kcal/g (9.6 kJ/g). It has also been used in traditional Chinese medicine



The plant is most prized for its sweet fruits, which are used for medicinal purposes, and as a sweetener.[3] The fruits are generally sold in dried form, and traditionally used in herbal tea or soup. They are used for respiratory ailments, sore throats and reputed to aid longevity.



A concentrate is a form of substance which has had the majority of its base component (in the case of a liquid: the solvent) removed. Typically this will be the removal of water from a solution or suspension such as the removal of water from fruit juice. One benefit of producing a concentrate is that of a reduction in weight and volume for transportation as the concentrate can be re-constituted at the time of usage by the addition of the solvent.