How are artificial flavors made? Grape flavoring for example…It’s delicious. But what is it?
In: Chemistry
Nile Red actually gives a good break down on this.
He turns plastic gloves into grape flavoring and makes grape soda.
Artificial grape flavor is commonly methyl anthranilate which can be [synthesized](https://youtu.be/zFZ5jQ0yuNA) from phthalate ester. The grapes are able to produce this flavor naturally however it is easier to produce in large quantities using chemistry. When it is synthesized rather than extracted from grapes it is artificial flavoring.
They can take the real food or whatever the flavor comes from and run it through a machine (mass spectrometer) that can tell them exactly what chemicals in the exact quantity’s the material has. Once they know the formula they can find other sources of those chemicals and combine them in the same formula.
It’s similar to a recipe used to cook food. It’s all about the materials used in the right portions.
Natural and artificial flavors are often chemically identical down to the atom. The only difference is whether they’re extracted from a natural source or synthesized. So they start with a substance extracted from grapes, figure out its composition, that particular molecule is “natural grape flavoring”. Then they figure out a way to synthesize that molecule, the stuff they synthesize, even though it’s the exact same stuff, is called artificial.
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