Have you ever asked this question? I have many times and for some reason i have never tried to answer it. Well here we go.

I suppose my interest grew after I started reading a book by Catherine Shanahan M.D. called “Deep Nutrition”. I have tried to read books on nutrition before. I couldnt ever get through them. But this book is fascinating. Sadly with no other way to say it Catherine takes a “deep” look at how food effects our bodies. At a cellular level we can effect our dna and the dna of our children with everything we eat. I would heavily suggest this book to anyone interested in Nutrition. I will tell you two things if you don’t want to read it. Don’t eat sugar and don’t cook with vegetable oil.

So there I was, about to make some eggs and pulled the butter from the fridge. I am not sure what made me look but I did and saw this.

 

WTF! First I went to the store and found some good old KerryGold.  But now I want to know what it is. So here is a stuffy definition from you government.

The definition of natural flavor under the Code of Federal Regulations is: “the essential oil, oleoresin, essence or extractive, protein hydrolysate, distillate, or any product of roasting, heating or enzymolysis, which contains the flavoring constituents derived 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, whose significant function in food is flavoring rather than nutritional” (21CFR101.22)

Ok so now what? Well there are people in this world who are called flavorist. They make flavors synthetically and naturally which I am not sure I understand. And now I have a can of worms. If you type “flavorist” into Google you get all kinds of info. Job Monkey had this to say in their opening statement about the job.

‘Food processing keeps the foods we eat safe and makes them last longer. What you might not know is that food processing also removes natural flavors. As of result of this flavor loss, the flavor industry was born. The flavor industry is a multi-billion dollar industry that employs a very unique career… flavorists.”

So I guess I don’t understand why Costco has to add flavoring to butter to make it taste like butter and KerryGold does not.  So I sent Costco and email asking them this politely and I am sure that I will never hear back. But if I do I will post here.

But why is this ok? Are you ok with it?