Eli5: How do secret food recipes stay secret if the ingredients have to be disclosed?

Question

Eli5: How do secret food recipes stay secret if the ingredients have to be disclosed?

In: 2

Answer 1

Not all ingredients get disclosed. Often the differentiation is the “natural flavors” or other vague discriptor.

Also while ingredients are disclosed, the quantities, treatment of ingredients and preparation of recipe aren’t disclosed. Maybe it’s a secret cookie recipe — what’s ratio of regular sugar to brown sugar? Is butter cold stick, whipped, melted, melted and browned? How coarsely is the flour milled? How long and at what temp are the cookies baked?