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"Pure Vanilla Extract." Right next to it on the shelf, "Vanilla Flavor," a few cents cheaper. Most people assume it is the same thing in fancier words. It is not, and the difference is written into federal law. An extract ...

The most feared additive in the American pantry is manufactured, in large amounts, by your own body. It is also present in breast milk at higher free levels than in a bowl of ramen. The molecule is glutamate, and it ...

Every spring someone asks why we cannot just flavor a product with real strawberries. A fresh strawberry is 91 percent water. To get something a factory can dose you need 9 to 10 kilos of fruit for one kilo of ...

Everyone says banana candy tastes fake. The chemistry says something more interesting. Isoamyl acetate (3-methylbutyl acetate, CAS 123-92-2) is a true character impact compound. Strawberry needs hundreds of volatiles working in concert before the brain commits to "strawberry." Banana does ...

"Natural Flavor." It is one of the most common ingredients on the American food label, and almost nobody, including plenty of people who work in food, can tell you what it actually means. In the United States, a natural flavor ...

That almond flavor in your marzipan bar has probably never touched an almond. Most commercial almond flavoring is either synthesized from toluene or pulled from cassia bark oil, not from almonds themselves. And there's a real reason for that detour. ...