How It's Made
Key facts
- Name on labels (INCI)
- Flavouring (Orange Type)
- Also called
- Orange flavour, Orange-type flavouring, Orange oil flavour
- Grade to ask for
- Food flavour; water-soluble or emulsion for drinks
An orange-type flavour concentrate, usually built on orange oil from the peel.
What it does
- Fresh orange taste
- Gives back the juicy, peel-fresh notes that concentration and pasteurisation remove from orange juice.
- Cloud and colour
- As an emulsion, orange oil droplets scatter light and give orange drinks their opaque, juicy look.
- Flavour for low-juice drinks
- In drinks with little juice, the flavour carries most of the orange taste.
Products on How It's Made that use orange flavour
| Product | Its role there |
|---|---|
| Orange fruit drink | Orange flavour. Orange flavouring tops up the taste of the concentrate, which loses some aroma when concentrated. |
| Orange squash | Orange flavour. Orange flavour restores the fresh, juicy orange taste that juice loses when it is concentrated, heated and diluted. |
| Orange drink powder | Orange flavour. A powdered orange flavour, usually spray-dried onto a carrier, that releases its aroma when the powder dissolves. |
On How It's Made, orange flavour appears in the orange fruit drink, orange squash and orange drink powder guides. Orange oil is also used outside food as a solvent and fragrance.
Grades and specifications
- Water-soluble orange flavours
- Citrus oils treated to remove insoluble parts so they dissolve clear.
- Orange emulsions
- Orange oil dispersed in water with gum arabic or modified starch, plus a weighting agent such as ester gum or SAIB, used at around 1 part in 1,000 to flavour and cloud drinks.
- Powder orange flavours
- Spray-dried onto a carrier for drink powders and dry mixes.
- Juicy orange profiles
- Flavours designed to taste of juice rather than peel; Kerry lists an orange juicy flavour (F1507) on Matta.
Handling, safety and regulation
Citrus oils oxidise and develop off-flavours with air, heat and light, so they are stored sealed and cool. In emulsions, oil droplets must be kept small, below about 2 micrometres; oversized droplets cream and form a ring in the bottle neck. Orange oil is flammable and can irritate skin.
Orange flavourings for food must be food grade and used in line with good manufacturing practice; the weighting agents and emulsifiers in emulsions are food additives with their own limits. Finished drinks in Nigeria must be registered with NAFDAC.
Where orange flavour comes from
Orange oil is recovered by centrifuging the oily liquid from peel during juice production, so supply follows the orange juice industry. Composition varies with region, season and extraction, with limonene typically 91 to 97 percent. Kerry's orange juicy flavour is listed on Matta.
Sourcing orange flavour through Matta
Request an orange flavour or emulsion for your drink through Matta. For food ingredients, see Matta's ingredients page.
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.
Flavourings
Citric acid
Sodium benzoate
Strawberry flavour