When you make an apple muffin at home, what gives it the apple flavor?
Apples of course! Like real, whole, chopped or shredded apples or applesauce.
But, let’s say you’re a big food company and you’re making thousands of apple muffins every day. In a factory. On an assembly line.
How would you process the huge amount of apples that are to be chopped, grated or made into applesauce? Would you have a separate “Apple Room” where all the apple processing happens? What if one batch is slightly riper, or tastes slightly different from the rest? Will your customers notice a different taste?
Apples are perishable – they go bad. So how would you guarantee the apples won’t go bad? (Remember the saying “it only takes one bad apple to ruin the whole bunch?”).
And what if you can have an apple flavor that tastes better than using real apples? Something that makes people want to keep buying them every week. It’s true – some of the artificial flavors are engineered to give an even better taste than the real food.
Companies will often opt for the easier and more profitable option like artificial flavors.
Artificial flavors last longer and will be virtually identical batch after batch. In our apple muffin example, artificial flavors used to make an apple muffin are ready to go, so you don’t need to peel, cut, or worry about apples going brown, or that they’re not tasting “appley” enough.
Oh, and it’s way cheaper than using real, whole apples.
Pro Tip: If the package says “flavored” in the description, then the flavor is artificial. For example, “apple muffin” contains at least some apples. But, “apple flavored muffin” contains artificial flavor and no apple.