Comments on: Pickles: Whole Foods 365, Cascadian Farm Contain Natural Flavors

By: Timothy Pickett

Timothy Pickett — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 02:08:21 +0000

You can check out Strub’s Organic Pickles, wherever they are sold. They are available from national natural distributors like UNFI and Nature’s Best, so presumably Whole Foods or any natural food co-op or natural grocery store could carry them. They have “Organic Spices” as an obfuscating recipe ingredient, but not natural flavors. I am told they are quite good, but don’t like pickles myself.

They are imported from Ontario, Canada.

By: Gaye Sandler

Gaye Sandler — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 22:44:46 +0000

Does Cascadian Farms still make vinegar-free pickles?

By: admin

admin — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 20:37:23 +0000

Welcome, Laura and thank you for your tip regarding alum.

You might want to further research natural flavors and IFF (international flavors and fragrances). Natural flavors are not mainly made from herbs and spices. They are made of laboratory produced chemicals, most of which originate in factories in New Jersey. You sound like a person who cares about food and I think your research of IFF could be very meaningful to you.

Thanks for stopping by.

By: Laura S.

Laura S. — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 20:31:22 +0000

As “natural flavors” used in organic foods are basically herb and spice extractives, they are no more “chemical additives” than green tea is water w/ a chemical additive. Tea is water w/ a tea leaf extract. They are using the extractives, rather than the whole herb or spice to prevent mold and other spoilage resulting from storing the bulk ingredients before use, and in the finished product on the shelf. It is the trade-off for the convenience of not having to make our own, and for having the product available year-round.

We have so many truly unhealthy things added to processed food, that I believe we should concentrate our energies on those, especially when the organic food in question has been made w/ care not to contain harmful substances.

BTW, old-fashioned pickles which are usually made w/ the traditional alum rather than the more modern calcium chloride to stay crisp, contain aluminum, as “alum” is aluminum sulphate. It’s not great to eat a whole lot of traditional, natural pickles, anyway.

By: Waterlily

Waterlily — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 03:11:26 +0000

In my quest to find dill pickles, I found Mezzetta (Mezzetta.com) Kosher Style Dill Pickles at Whole Foods. They are made in the Napa Valley.

They are as close to pickles I like as they can be.

Indgredients: Cucumbers, Water, Distilled Vinegar, Salt, Garlic, Spices, Turmeric

By: 2wildchildzmom

2wildchildzmom — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 23:09:18 +0000

We are becoming more aware of the food that we eat. I tried to buy pickles today and came into the same situation as this blogger had. I was especially irritated to find that Yellow dye #5 was in all of the pickles. Why do we need dye in our pickles! We have become ridiculous.

I was excited to find this site, and then sad that, since I live in Idaho, I won’t be able to buy them.
If you live in the NorthEast support these folks:
http://www.realpickles.com/

By: carol

carol — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 16:36:16 +0000

>>
however the whole foods pickles are kosher and pareve which means they have NO animal substance used
>>

This isn’t an accurate statment. Pareve just means that the item was prepared in accordance to a certain standard. The item can indeed include animal substances. Our family is Jewish, and we have many products that contain animal sources that are Pareve.

By: Ali Smith

Ali Smith — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 03:28:41 +0000

I avoid any food with “natural flavors,” period. I also am concerned about vegan products which are using the chemical flavor enhancers called “Natural flavors,” since they can be meat-based. It is a huge scam, and is making the flavorists, or flavor-producing labs a great deal of unethical profit. Why unethical? Because if the chemicals used to create the specific “Natural flavor” were disclosed, then consumers would better understand that the drink or the cereal or the bar or the juice or the tea or the yogurt, or the children’s yogurt or the ice cream or the frozen entree or the granola or the sauce or the marinade or the smoothie or the pasta sauce or the pickle or the relish or the tapenade or the truffle oil or the herb-flavored oil gets some of its “flavor” from chemicals created in laboratories by flavorists. These “natural flavors” are cheaper than adding the real peach to a peach yogurt or real maple syrup to a maple granola or real raspberry juice concentrate to a smootie drink or real herbs to an herb oil, or real orange oil to an orange soda, or real spices to pickles. The flavor industry must be very, very aggressive to have gotten their feet in the doors of most all of the natural foods manufacturers, of even baby foods! The secret is the profits are much more substantial when chemical flavor enhancement is used, since, as you say, it hides behind the blanket term “natural flavors.”

I go out of my way to avoid any product using flavor enhancement just like I avoid certain foods that are causing people to get sick. I would like to see what can be done to challenge the FDA’s acceptance of the lack of disclosure to the consumer related to the use of this nebulous term.

By: valerie

valerie — Tue, 06 May 2008 16:40:21 +0000

Hi David- thank you for this information- can you tell me if a product is not organic but lists natural flavor than is that natural flavor likely to contain a solvent used to extract the flavor?

Also when you say organic does this mean labeled usda organic? what about a products that say 70% organic and lists a natural flavor, does this mean that the natural flavor may then contain a solvent. Any insiight you could offer would be much appreciated- my daughter is chemically sensitive and we are very cautious of what we feed her- I am always concerned about natural flavors and avoid them unless it says it is an organic natural flavor- thanks Valeire

By: David Konrad

David Konrad — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 13:28:02 +0000

As an organic inspector, I would like to provide the following information on the circumstances in which Natural Flavors are allowed in food labelled as organic.

The following is an excerpt from the NOP Organic Regulations which allow natural flavors to be used in food making an organic claim.

“Section 205.605 Nonagricultural (nonorganic) substances allowed as ingredients in or on processed products labeled as “organic” or “made with organic (specified ingredients or food group(s)).”
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Flavors, nonsynthetic sources only and must not be produced using synthetic solvents and carrier systems or any artificial preservative.”

From the definition of Natural Flavoring above we see that it is called a flavoring instead of an ingredient because its purpose is taste rather than nutrition. The source has to be natural ie. plant or animal rather than synthetic. The plant or animal product used does not have to be organic. The method of getting the flavor out of the natural product cannot use synthetic solvents. So typically, they use water or organic alcohol as the medium to accept the flavor from the natural product. An finally, synthetic carrier systems are not allowed and artificial preservatives are not allowed.

Before the processor is allowed to use a flavor in a product making an organic claim, the certifying agent will evaluate the flavor to ensure it complies with the regulations. This is a rigorous process consistently applied.

Increasingly, certified organic natural flavors are available which will mean that the initial product from which the flavor is extracted will be organic.

The criticism that natural flavors in organic is adding chemicals to the food is not accurate.