1. 1 Flavoring Agents  Flavorings comprise one of the most important classes of food additives, because they are able to replace or mask the absence of expensive natural products and to improve the taste of manufactured foods.  An indication of the flavors importance is the fact that two third of the used food additives are natural or synthetic flavors.  Natural flavors are produced by the combined effect of many different chemical, although frequently the taste of one or two chemical predominates. 1

2. 22  Once the natural flavor basis composition is determined scientists can synthesize a realistic artificial flavor.  A typical artificial cherry flavoring as an example is not a single chemical as many persons assume but a mixture of 13 chemicals; and benzaldehyde constituted about 56% of this artificial cherry flavoring.  As have been mentioned in the food additives legislation, bringing flavors under law control was very difficult and acquired great efforts from the regulatory bodies.

3. 33  However, regulatory bodies treated flavors more gently than most other food additives.  This situation may be due to the following reasons:  1. The relatively small amounts which are used from flavors in foods (usually less than 0.03%)  2. Almost all flavors occur naturally.  3. Flavors are represented by a powerful industry lobby.

4. 44  Something of interest and should be considered, that is a chemical occur naturally in foods does not guarantee its safety.  Safrole as example occurs naturally and it was used for flavoring of beer until 1960 when it was found that it is a liver carcinogens.  Oil of calamus also which is a natural flavoring was found in 1967 to cause intestinal tumors.

5. 5  A recent flavoring list given by American FDA contained 1750 substances from which 800 substance were synthetic flavoring substances that may be safely used in foods if they are used in accordance with GMP.  The remainder 1000 substances are considered natural flavoring substances. Both the natural and synthetic flavoring are included in the GRAS list of these Flavor and Extract Manufacturing Association (FEMA).

6. 66  Concerning the British Flavoring list, 1600 flavoring substances were included in the list and were classified to 6 category and as follow :  Natural flavoring substances that are derived from natural constituents of food such as fruits and nuts; 83 item were listed under this class. 83 item were listed under this class.  Natural substances that are derived from vegetable, herbs, and spices and used in small quantities not exceeding those occurring in natural foods. This class contain about 384 substances. From this class 73 substances have some limitation due to the presence of toxic substances.

7.  Natural substances used at present but their sources are not well common, 111 substances are listed under this class.  Flavoring which the available evidence suggests possible toxicity and should be banned, 13 substances were included in this list. 7

8. 88  Artificial and synthetic substances where the available evidence suggests that they are acceptable to be added in foods but their level of addition should be determined; these include 754 items.  Artificial and synthetic substances which may be provisionally accepted for use in foods within set limits but some desirable toxicological date is lacking. These include 243 substances.  As can be noted from the British Flavoring list which contains about 1600 items, 600 are natural and about 1000 are artificial or synthetic.

9. 9  With regard to the flavoring list of FAO/WHO, it is of interest to notice that this list includes only 90 flavoring substances from which only 7 items have been evaluated and 17 items which are flavor enhancer.  Only six items from the flavoring enhancer have been evaluated as can be seen from the transparency.  An acceptable explanation for the great variation regarding the number of flavoring substances listed in the USA or British lists which reached to more than 1500;

10. International list of flavorings 10

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14. 1414  and those in the International ( FAO/WHO) list which reached only to about 100 is due to the fact that some flavorings are consisted of more than 50 component and these flavoring components are included in the USA and British lists.  Accordingly, huge number of flavoring was listed in the British and USA list.  Another point of interest also in the flavorings is that only few flavoring substances have been evaluated as appear from the International flavoring list.  In other means, most of the natural or synthetic flavorings, have not been tested for their capacity to case cancer, birth defects or mutation, inspite of that, they are consumed daily.

15. 1515  Yes we accept that it is not an easy job to evaluate thousands of flavoring substances; but also we should recognize that there is a risk or hazard from the consumption of flavoring which have not been evaluated.  Fortunately, the food additives regulating bodies in the USA as well as the industry and the academic started a program to evaluate the flavoring and some of the results have been published recently.  Now we will take some examples on the flavoring and flavor enhancers which are widely used in the food industry.

16. 16  I. Vanilla  It is probably the most widely used flavoring. It is added to various foods including ice cream, beverages, baked items, chocolate products candy and others. It is used in concentrations ranging between 0.006 to 0.1%.  Vanilla is a natural flavor taken from the vanilla plant which is widely cultivated in Mexico and Central America.  Flavor chemists have synthesized a variety of vanilla derivatives where vanillin and ethyl vanillin are two of them; inspite of that these two synthetic vanilla compounds have a similar test to vanilla but is not quite as good as real vanilla.

17. 1717  With regard to the regularity aspect of vanilla and its synthtic products; the USA regulations permit the usage of vanilla in various foods without specifying limits and its LD50 is about 1.6 g/kg.  While for ethyl vanillin, the same regulation specifies it as a flavoring agent to be added only for baked items, bevareges, ice cream and sauces without giving limits.  II. Cinnamon and its components  Eight compounds of cinnamon have been listed as flavoring agents in the USA flavoring list. All these component have been evaluated.

18. 1818  They include:  A. Cinnamaldehyde: it is found in cinnamon oil and has the strong odor of cinnamon. Its use is limited in nonalcoholic beverages, chewing gum, confectionery, ice cream, and meat. It is moderately toxic by ingestion and its LD50 is 0.06 g/kg.  B. Cinnamon acid, it occurs also in the oil of cinnamon, it is used in various foods, moderately toxic by ingestion and its LD50 1.6 g/kg.  C. Cinnamon leaf oil : it is extracted by steam distillation of cinnamon leaves, its use is limited to special foods as in cinnamaldehyde.

19. 1919  D. Cinnamon acetate: it is used in various foods, moderately toxic by ingestion, and its LD50 is 3.3 g/kg.  E. Cinnamyl alcohol and cinnamyl formats: they are permitted to be used in various foods, moderately toxic. LD50 is about 2-3 g/kg.  F. Cinnamyl isovalerate and cinnamyl priopionate: these two flavorings are permitted to be used in various foods although their limits are not specified (used at a level not in excess of the amount reasonably required to accomplish the intended effect); they lack toxicity evaluation.

20. 2020  III. Anise and its components: five flavoring agent are included under this item:  A. Anisaldehyde: it is permitted to be used in various foods and considered moderately toxic by ingestion. Its LD50 is 1.5 g/kg.  B. Anise oil: the foods to be used in are: bakery items, alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages, candy, chewing gum, confections, meat...etc.; it is moderately toxic by ingestion and its LD50 is 2.2 g/kg.  IV. Ginger oil: it is taken by steam distillation of ground rhizomes of ginger; permitted to be used in baking items, beverages, meats, relishes; level of use is not specified; it is a skin irritant.

21. 2121  V. Commarin: It is used as flavoring agent but not in foods; it is poisonous by ingestion and its LD50 is 0.3g/kg.  VI. Cumin oil: it is permitted for use in cheese, meat, soups, and relishes; no specific level is mentioned; moderately toxic by ingestion; its LD50 is 2.5g/kg.  VII. Monosodium glutamate: it is a flavor enhancer permitted to be used in meat, poultry, soups, level of use is not specified, mildly toxic by ingestion, and its LD50 is 50 mg/kg.

22. 22 Flavors physical forms

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24. 24 Flavors application guide

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