Defining the term ‘natural’ in the context of food products - Natural Food Additives, Ingredients and Flavourings - page 18

Processes for the production of natural fl avour complexes and natural
fl avouring substances are defi ned and some of these are not included in the
traditional food preparation processes of EU legislation, i.e. Annex II of Regulation
(EC) No. 1334/2008. These processes include adsorption, absorption,
crystallisation, encapsulation, extrusion, osmosis and ultrasonic treatment. Most
of these are used for purifi cation and as such are acceptable physical processes
though extrusion may create issues in the EU especially if a temperature of 120°C
is exceeded. The IOFI processes are listed in the third column of Table 1.2.
One aspect that is missing from the IOFI Code of Practice is the requirement that
for a fl avouring substance to be natural it should have been identifi ed in nature. It is
theoretically possible under this Code to produce an artifi cial fl avouring substance
by biochemical methods and call it natural, e.g. ethyl maltol and ethyl vanillin.

1.5 The defi nition of 'natural' in other countries
1.5.1 Japan
'Natural' is briefl y covered in the Japanese specifi cations and standards for foods
and food additives (JETRO 2006). There is no distinction between natural identical
and artifi cial in Japanese food law, but natural fl avouring agents are defi ned as:
' Natural fl avoring agent' means additives, intended for use for fl avouring
food, which are substances obtained from animals or plants, or mixtures
thereof (JETRO 2006, p. 3).
Permitted natural fl avouring agents are listed in the Food Sanitation Law
Enforcement Regulations (JETRO 2006) and are declared on the food label by the
names of source substances or synonyms. There is no mention of biochemical
processes even though Japanese industry uses fermentation to produce a range of
fl avouring ingredients.

1.5.2 Australasia
In 2002, Food Standards Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ) developed the
Food Standards Code (FSANZ 2002), which is a joint set of food labelling and
composition rules for the two countries to allow free trade without technical
obstruction. The two countries now operate a 'mixed list' system where both
natural and nature identical fl avouring substances are recognised. They are
controlled by a negative list system (i.e. they can be used unless specifi cally
regulated) and artifi cial fl avouring substances are controlled by positive list
system (i.e. they can only be used if they are on the positive list). Natural fl avouring
substances are defi ned as:
Natural fl avouring substances means fl avouring substances obtained from
plant or animal raw materials by physical, microbiological or enzymatic
processes. They can be either used in their natural state or processed for
human consumption but cannot contain any nature-identical or artifi cial
fl avouring substances.

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