Natural Flavoring, anyone?

[lydever91]

For about the past year, my family and I have known a very dark and disgusting "secret," which is easily seen online.
Just Google "raspberry natural flavoring" and you will see the secret.

Lets see what pops up when I Google it:


The nasty part is that it's also in vanilla and strawberry flavoring as well.

So far my family is staying away from raspberry, vanilla, strawberry, Minute Maid, Pepsi products,foods with red dye, aquafina, etc...
The list could go on forever. I also just found out about human hair in breads!!!

Here's a quote from an article about the subject:

Because our food has become so highly processed and because by FDA law, food companies can list spices and flavorings as natural or artificial flavors, unbelievably strange and disgusting things are being added to our food:

• Beaver anal glands, known as castoreum (I guess anal glands was a hard sell), are typically used in vanilla and raspberry flavoring and can legally be labeled natural flavoring
• L-cysteine or cystine is used a dough conditioner. It’s sometimes made from human hair, but more and more from duck feathers and can be found in breads and baked goods.
• A red food coloring additive that goes by many names (Carmine, Crimson Lake, Cochineal, or Natural Red #4) is made from insects like the cochineal beetle.

This is just one more example of how distorted our food system is. To see a longer list of the strange food additives that can be grouped under “natural flavors,” go to Bruce Bradley’s blog.

 

[AgeofKnowledge]

USE THIS:

 

[lydever91]

I've used that before, it's pretty good, but SO expensive...we buy the sugar in the raw or organic sugar. Both in bulk most of the time.

 

[Tintin]

Also expensive. If more people bought either of the products though, they'd go down significantly in price.

 

[ServantStrike]

That beaver stuff is actually even more expensive....

Do some digging, it's pricey, too pricey. It's mostly relegated to perfumes and high end herbal supplements. 50+ bucks a pound. You can believe that a company that sells processed foods that is now trying to go "natural" is going to go for something a lot cheaper than that in order to turn a profit.

In fact, this source says only about 300 pounds of it a year ends up in the supply chain. Even in tiny trace amounts, that's not enough for over 300 million Americans, where it's labeled as a natural flavor thanks to the FDA.

 

[just_monicat]

yeah, i get my stevia/rapadura/xilitol in the bulk section of my health food store. and i stock up on sales. it seems much more affordable in bulk.

p.s. if you want to be scared about allowable food additives, check out "brominated vegetable oil". back when i was working like 60-75 hours a week (plus) i would drink diet mountain dew (i know, i know), which is an ingredient in that item and other (usually citrus) beverages.

it's original application is a fire retardant, and is an illegal additive in many 1st world countries. it's seriously scary stuff.

 

[just_monicat]

For about the past year, my family and I have known a very dark and disgusting "secret," which is easily seen online.
Just Google "raspberry natural flavoring" and you will see the secret.

Lets see what pops up when I Google it:
View attachment 71946

The nasty part is that it's also in vanilla and strawberry flavoring as well.

So far my family is staying away from raspberry, vanilla, strawberry, Minute Maid, Pepsi products,foods with red dye, aquafina, etc...
The list could go on forever. I also just found out about human hair in breads!!!

Here's a quote from an article about the subject:

i'd be interested in hearing the story of how someone discovered that beaver's anal glands have "flavoring" properties.

 

[Tintin]

i'd be interested in hearing the story of how someone discovered that beaver's anal glands have "flavoring" properties.

You would? I'm not. I'm running in the other direction as fast as I can! (not from you Monicat, but the offending beaver-eater).

 

[pickles]

Ive been making myown natural flavorings for years now, its really very easy.
The benefit is you know what is in your food, and it tastes much better as well.

God bless
pickles

 

[lydever91]

Ive been making myown natural flavorings for years now, its really very easy.
The benefit is you know what is in your food, and it tastes much better as well.

God bless
pickles

May I ask how you do that? I'm very interested in doing so as well

 

[lydever91]

yeah, i get my stevia/rapadura/xilitol in the bulk section of my health food store. and i stock up on sales. it seems much more affordable in bulk.

p.s. if you want to be scared about allowable food additives, check out "brominated vegetable oil". back when i was working like 60-75 hours a week (plus) i would drink diet mountain dew (i know, i know), which is an ingredient in that item and other (usually citrus) beverages.

it's original application is a fire retardant, and is an illegal additive in many 1st world countries. it's seriously scary stuff.

While I was reading, I was thinking "it's a good thing I don't use veggie oil" and then I finished the rest. Darn food industry.

 

[RedTent]

While I was reading, I was thinking "it's a good thing I don't use veggie oil" and then I finished the rest. Darn food industry.

Isn't this the truth! There was a governmental meeting in the late 1800's about what to do about food to supply the growing population of America. Natural foods spoil, flour gets weevils, many foods have a poor shelf life. Many additives to prolong shelf life are poison, and without these poisons feeding the growing population was almost impossible. So it was decided to allow the poisons.

Crisco, that made hydrogenated oils popular, started because a candle maker found the lard he needed was too expensive. Proctor, of Proctor and Gamble was the candle maker. Gamble made soap. They saw the cottonseed oil looked like lard. Their adverting was wonderful and successful, and it took some years for them to discover their product killed people. By that time they were so successful and rich, it seemed a shame to stop producing the stuff.

 

[lydever91]

Also expensive. If more people bought either of the products though, they'd go down significantly in price.

View attachment 72003

I've thought about this in the past, but it'd be so difficult to get people to start buying it in the first place. Most people around me don't mind drinking aborted baby fetus cells, drinking beaver glands, gulping down aspartame, or eating pig/cow collagen in their desserts. They surely won't buy stevia/other natural sweeteners for their health. I will give a try with my family, though. My dad, who's normally pretty cheap, will even buy stevia instead of white junky sugar because of his diabetes.

 

[pickles]

May I ask how you do that? I'm very interested in doing so as well

No problem.
With almost any flavorings wether consitrated or useing leaves from mints ect.
The safest is to preserve in alchohol, I like using rum the best as it has a flavor that complements most preserved flavors.
If one does not want to use alchohol, they can use colodial silver, simply add several drops to the flavorings, with purified water.
One can simply put the mint leaves or consitrates into the alchohol and let it cure for about a month, somtimes a bit longer.
I like to prserve my vanilla beans in alchohol for about a year for the best flavor.
With using water and colodial silver, you will want to heat the flavoring in the water,never to a boil, only heat to release the flavor, as many flavors can turn bitter if heated at a boil.
Mints are the most sensitive to too much heat and will turn bitter if it gets too hot, you only need to warm the leaves.

It can take a little while to get started, as all needs time to cure, but once you have preserved for about a year, it is easy to keep a constant supply.
I do prefur using alchohol myself as it is the safest preservative and keeps forever.
The nice part is I can put up a pint of real vanilla for a fraction of the cost, simply buy the beans and put them in the rum.
And it is ok to thin the alchohol a little with water, but I find the flavor is better when I dont.
Ive somtimes used the lemonbalm mint in home made cleaners, as it smells lovely.
I hope this helps, I learned simply by trial and error, but there were realy few errors.
Just the mints, and quickly correted that.

God bless
pickles

 

[pickles]

I thought Id add.
If you want to preserve your own stevia, you can buy the plant at most nurseries and grow them.
I dry the leaves to use in my teas.
For a sweetener I heat the leaves in grapefruit juice then strain, and add a little alchohol to preserve.
I keep it in the fridge to keep fresh.

God bless
pickles

 

[lydever91]

Thank you for sharing