Reference

Flavoring Glossary

The terms that appear on flavor specifications and ingredient statements, defined for people who have to act on them.

Acidulant: A food acid added to make something tart and lower its pH. Which one you pick changes the taste: citric is sharp and quick, malic is slower and lasts longer.
Artificial flavor Also: Artificial flavoring: A flavor not made from a plant or animal — even when it is the identical molecule to the natural one. The law cares where it came from, not what it is.
Carrier: The liquid or powder the flavor is carried in — propylene glycol, oil, maltodextrin, gum arabic. It is most of what you buy by weight, and it decides whether the flavor will mix in.
Flavor emulsion: Oily flavor broken into tiny droplets and held in water by a gum. Used when an oil-based flavor has to go into a drink, or when you want the drink to look cloudy.
Encapsulation: Wrapping flavor droplets in a shell so they survive baking, storage and time, and only release when you want them to.
Extract: Flavor pulled out of a real raw material with a solvent, usually alcohol or water. An extract is whatever came out of the plant. A flavor is designed to a recipe.
Flavor enhancer: Something that makes the flavors already there taste stronger, without adding a flavor of its own. MSG is the best-known one.
Flavor house: A company that makes flavors to order. You send a brief, their flavorists build the flavor, and their application team tests it in your actual product.
GRAS: Generally Recognized As Safe — a US status meaning qualified experts agree an ingredient is safe for a specific use, so it does not need formal approval as a food additive.
Natural and artificial flavor Also: N&A flavor: A flavor containing both: usually a natural base with one or two synthesized parts added for strength or stability. A single synthetic component changes the whole declaration.
Natural flavor Also: Natural flavoring, Natural flavor: A flavor whose components come from a plant or animal — spice, fruit, vegetable, herb, dairy or meat. It does not mean it came from the fruit named on the front of the pack.
Natural WONF: With other natural flavors. The fruit named on the pack really is in there and gives the flavor its character, topped up with natural components from elsewhere.
Oleoresin: A concentrated spice extract holding both the aroma and the heat or color that plain spice oil leaves behind. Far stronger than ground spice, and much more consistent.
Spray drying: Turning liquid flavor into a powder by spraying it into hot air. It is how powdered flavors are made, and it costs you most of the lightest, freshest aromas.
Taste modulation: Compounds that work on your taste receptors directly — blocking bitterness, boosting sweetness — instead of covering the problem with more flavor.
Top note: The lightest, fastest part of a flavor: what you smell the moment you open the pack. It is also the first thing lost to heat, air and time.
WONF Also: With other natural flavors: With other natural flavors. The named fruit is genuinely in there and gives the flavor its character; other natural components fill it out.