What does "natural flavors" mean?
By the FDA’s definition, a natural flavor is a flavoring extracted from a food source, like a fruit, spice, vegetable, meat or dairy, “whose significant function in food is flavoring rather than nutritional”. It’s still a flavoring, so NOVA puts any food that lists it in group 4. The word “natural” doesn’t change that.
“Natural flavors” is one of the most common lines on a US label, and it sounds like the reassuring version. It tells you where the flavor came from. It doesn’t tell you the food was made in a kitchen.
We’d treat “natural flavors” the same as “artificial flavors” when you’re deciding what group a food is in. Neither one is a reason to panic, and both mean the taste was added in a factory. If you want the taste of strawberries, buy plain yogurt and add strawberries.
Natural flavor is like a perfume made from real roses. The roses were real, and you still wouldn’t call the perfume a flower.
What the FDA’s rule says
21 CFR 101.22 defines natural flavor as “the essential oil, oleoresin, essence or extractive, protein hydrolysate, distillate, or any product of roasting, heating or enzymolysis” that carries flavor from “a spice, fruit or fruit juice, vegetable or vegetable juice, edible yeast, herb, bark, bud, root, leaf or similar plant material, meat, seafood, poultry, eggs, dairy products, or fermentation products thereof”.
An artificial flavor is any flavoring that doesn’t come from one of those sources. On the label, either can be listed as just “natural flavor” or “artificial flavor”, with no detail on what’s in it.
The rule also says garlic powder, onion powder and other dried, ground foods are food, and have to be listed by their own names. Those aren’t flavorings, and they aren’t NOVA markers.
Why NOVA counts it
NOVA’s 2019 paper lists “flavours” first among the cosmetic additives that mark ultra-processed food, and doesn’t split natural from artificial. The 2025 to 2030 US guidelines say to limit foods with artificial flavors (page 4), and they say nothing about natural ones.
Where it shows up
| Food | Labels with natural flavor |
|---|---|
| Protein bars | 78 of 97 |
| Fruit yogurts | 66 of 95 |
| Soy milks | 34 of 67 |
| Oat milks | 23 of 76 |
From US labels in Open Food Facts, checked with this site’s label checker on November 14, 2026. In fruit yogurt, it was the most common marker by a wide margin.
What we’d do
- Count it as a marker whichever word comes before “flavor”.
- Add the flavor yourself where you can: fruit in plain yogurt, cinnamon in oatmeal, lemon in sparkling water.
- See the organic myth in organic or natural packaged food isn’t ultra-processed.
4 sources
- US Food and Drug Administration, Food labeling: spices, flavorings, colorings and chemical preservatives, 21 CFR 101.22ecfr.gov
- Monteiro et al., Ultra-processed foods: what they are and how to identify them, Public Health Nutrition, 2019pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- US Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services, Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025 to 2030cdn.realfood.gov
- Open Food Facts, US products in the categories fruit yogurts (95 ingredient lists), protein bars (97), oat-based drinks (76) and soy-based drinks (67), checked with this site's label checker on November 14, 2026us.openfoodfacts.org
