Eli5, how is artificial flavoring made?

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Eli5, how is artificial flavoring made?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

my jr high science teacher said they use a chemical with a very similar molecular structure to the natural one

Anonymous 0 Comments

First, distinctions:

– “Natural Flavors” are flavorings made out of natural things, usually by distilling just the tasty boys out of the thing in question.
– “Artificial Flavors” are usually the exact same chemicals as their coordinating natural flavors, but instead of staying with the fruit or whatever they make the chemicals the fruit is made of in the lab.

So, how?

We take the thing whose flavor we want to copy, and take a look at all the chemicals in that thing.

Chemists can usually tell which chemicals can be detected by our tongues and noses based on their structure &/or makeup, so they take out everything else, and make sure what they’re left with still tastes the way we want it to.

Once they’ve figured out which chemicals need to be there for the taste to taste they way it tastes naturally, they come up with processes to make those chemicals in the lab, and now they’re artificial.