What are food flavourings and how are they used?

Key facts

Name on labels (INCI)

Natural flavourings

Also called

Flavours, Flavorings, Aromas, Flavouring preparations

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Declare caffeine and allergens on the label

A concentrate of extracts and aroma compounds, usually a closely guarded blend from a flavour house.

What it does

Give a product its identity

The flavour is what makes a drink taste of cola or pineapple, or a cake smell of vanilla. Most of the rest of the formula, sugar, acid, flour or milk, tastes much the same across products.

Restore taste lost in processing

Concentrating juice, heat treatment and baking drive off aroma. Flavours give it back, so a juice drink or a UHT milk tastes fresh.

Mask unwanted notes

Flavours cover the bitterness of caffeine, vitamins or cocoa, and the flat taste of milk powder or vegetable fat.

Keep products consistent

Natural ingredients vary by harvest and supplier; a flavour lets a manufacturer hold the same taste from batch to batch.

Products on How It's Made that use flavourings

On How It's Made, flavourings appear in cola, lemon-lime soda, malt drink, energy drink, orange and pineapple drinks, squash and drink powder, strawberry and chocolate milk, milkshake mix, yoghurt, ice cream, sponge cake, cream biscuits, shortbread, cake and pancake mixes, custard powder, seasoning cubes and noodles. Each guide names the flavour profile the product needs.

Grades and specifications

Liquid flavours

Flavours dissolved in a carrier such as propylene glycol, ethanol or triacetin. Easy to dose into syrups, dairy mixes and fillings.

Powder flavours

Usually spray-dried: the flavour is emulsified with a carrier such as gum arabic, modified starch or maltodextrin and dried into fine particles that protect it until they meet water. Used in drink powders, dry mixes and seasonings.

Emulsions

Oil-based flavours, such as citrus oils, dispersed in water with gum arabic or starch and a weighting agent. They flavour and cloud drinks such as orange soda.

Heat-stable flavours

Profiles and encapsulations designed to survive baking, frying or UHT treatment.

Handling, safety and regulation

Flavours are concentrated and often volatile. They are stored sealed, cool and away from light, and used within their stated shelf life because aroma fades and some components oxidise. Some carriers, such as ethanol, are flammable, and concentrated flavours can irritate skin and eyes, so suppliers' safety data sheets apply.

In the European Union, Regulation (EC) No 1334/2008 governs flavourings, and a natural flavouring substance must be obtained by physical, enzymatic or microbiological processes from natural material; the term "nature-identical" no longer exists there. The United States divides flavourings into natural and artificial under 21 CFR. Flavourings used in food in Nigeria must be food grade and the finished product must be registered with NAFDAC.

Where flavourings comes from

Flavours are created by flavourists at flavour houses, which blend hundreds of aroma materials into profiles for particular uses. Global flavour sales were about US$10.6 billion in 2011. Kerry Group, founded in Ireland in 1972, supplies taste and nutrition ingredients to customers in more than 140 countries; IFF, founded in 1889 and based in New York, has manufacturing and creative centres in dozens of countries. Both list food flavours on Matta for buyers in Africa.

Sourcing flavourings through Matta

Listings found on matta.trade, read 30 Oct 2026. Prices are a snapshot, not live; the listing is always the final word. Different suppliers and grades: compare prices only where the unit matches.

Related ingredients

Vanilla flavouringStrawberry flavourOrange flavourCola flavour