Natural Flavor Safety and Manufacturing

The consumer desire for health and wellness foodHealth and wellness foods products has a strong influence on the natural flavorNatural flavors market. The challenge facing flavoring manufacturers is to supply natural materials that comply with local regulations and accepted definitions of “natural.” In addition, specifications and safety assessments for flavors are necessary for consumer wellness. The analysis of natural flavorsNatural flavors involves three different types of determinations: chemical analysis of constituents, analysis of residues, and microbiological analysis. The content of the active components is the most important, while there are legal limits of residues that are likely to be present in natural flavorsNatural flavors for plant products and aqueous extracts, namely, solvents, aflatoxins, pesticides, and heavy metals in addition to microbial contamination. There are many available methods of natural flavorNatural flavors creation from plant sources which fall under the broad categories of extraction- and process-based. This chapter will include (1) an introduction of flavoring safety, (2) flavor safety analysis including active compounds, residues, and microorganisms as well as a discussion of flavor quality control, (3) natural flavorNatural flavors manufacturingFlavor manufacturing techniques, and (4) major challenges and future perspectives.