How do they create artificial flavors to taste like real foods?
In: 3
“real foods” taste/smell like they do because they contain certain chemicals your tongue/nose has sensors for. Artificial flavors are just those same chemicals (or ones that have structures that also trigger those sensors), made using a different method than just extracting them from the food they want to mimic. See [NileRed making grape soda flavor from plastic gloves](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFZ5jQ0yuNA).
Scientists use a process called gas chromatography to analyze the chemicals in natural flavors and try to recreate them in the lab. They may also use focus groups to taste and evaluate the artificial flavors to make sure they match the taste of the real thing.
Real foods get their tastes from chemicals that occur naturally in the plant/animal/herb/whatever. Chemists can harvest or ‘forge’ those chemicals and add them to different things.
It doesn’t always work well, since most vessels for such chemicals have a taste of their own, but sometimes it works really well.