Tag Archives: isotope ratio mass spectroscopy

Susanne Kuehne, Decernis
Food Fraud Quick Bites

Natural Goes Methodical

By Susanne Kuehne
No Comments
Susanne Kuehne, Decernis
Food fraud
Find records of fraud such as those discussed in this column and more in the Food Fraud Database, owned and operated by Decernis, a Food Safety Tech advertiser. Image credit: Susanne Kuehne

The popularity of “natural” foods with consumers has increased exponentially over the past decade or two. While the term “natural” on a food label is not formally regulated by the FDA, “natural flavors” have been defined in the Code of Federal Regulations Title 21 as flavoring constituents derived from a naturally occurring source, such as spice, fruit, vegetable, herb, leaf and more. “Natural” flavors/aromas have specific spectroscopic fingerprints versus synthetically produced volatile organic compounds. This method combines gas chromatography and isotope ratio mass spectroscopy (GC-C-IRMS) to determine whether a fruit aroma is naturally or synthetically-derived, and can be used to build a database of natural flavors.

Resource

  1. Strojnik, L., et al. (July 5, 2021). “Construction of IsoVoc Database for the Authentication of Natural Flavours”. MDPI Open Access Journals.