WONF

A WONF designation tells you two things at once: the fruit named on the pack really is in there and really is giving the flavor its character — and it is not doing the job alone.

The reason is practical. Most single-source natural extracts are not strong enough, not stable enough, or not affordable enough to carry a finished product. A natural strawberry extract at a sensible price tastes thin in a drink. Backing it with natural components from other sources gives it body and lift while keeping strawberry as the thing you taste.

On a US ingredient list this usually reads "natural strawberry flavor with other natural flavors". In trade documents it gets shortened to "natural strawberry WONF".

The three levels, in plain terms

• Natural flavor — natural ingredients, from anywhere. Not necessarily the named fruit.
• Natural WONF — the named fruit is in there and characterizing, with natural support from elsewhere.
• From the named fruit only — every flavor component comes from that fruit.

Cost climbs steeply down that list and availability drops. See natural WONF for how the middle option gets specified in practice.