Podcast Summary: The Economics of Everyday Things

Episode 114: Natural and Artificial Flavors
Host: Zachary Crockett (Freakonomics Network)
Guest: Terry Miszele, Master Flavorist, Sensient
Date: November 10, 2025

Overview

In this episode, Zachary Crockett explores the world of natural and artificial flavors—ubiquitous yet mysterious additives that shape the taste of most processed foods and drinks. Crockett and master flavorist Terry Miszele take listeners into the labs where flavors are dissected, designed, and commercialized for a multi-billion dollar industry. Along the way, they reveal the science, history, and economics that underpin the flavors in everything from sparkling water to yogurt and candy.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. What Are Flavors?

• Flavors are chemical compounds detected by a combination of senses: sight, taste, smell, and texture.

  • [03:07] Miszele: “First thing you do is you see it [...] When you peel it, you’re releasing oil from the peel and you’re smelling that. [...] When you taste it, when you pop it in your mouth now, it’s exploding.”

• While flavors occur in nature, they can also be created or replicated in laboratories.

2. Natural vs Artificial Flavors—What’s the Difference?

• The defining line is where the starting material comes from, not the molecule itself.

  • [05:07] Miszele: “You can have the same chemical compound, say menthol in your breath mints. If it came from a mint plant and was extracted, you can say natural. For artificial, it would be something that does not come from a natural source.”

• Natural flavor: Extracted from real ingredients (e.g., citrus essence from oranges).

• Artificial flavor: Synthesized, often from petroleum or wood pulp byproducts, even though the compound is chemically identical.

• Common misconception: Natural doesn’t always mean "straight from the fruit."

  • [06:03] Miszele: “I can make an orange flavor that doesn’t have any orange in it.”

3. Why Does the Food Industry Use Flavor Additives?

• Practicality: Many foods cannot accommodate raw fruit or vegetable additions due to texture, shelf life, or processing requirements.

  • [06:16] Crockett: “You can’t put orange pulp in a can of sparkling water without fundamentally changing the product.”

• Stability: Artificial flavors withstand high heat, long storage, and exposure to air and light better than natural ingredients.

  • [07:00] Miszele: “If you’re doing a flavor which is based on that cumin that’s generally very stable, […] it can last a very long time.”

• Availability & Cost: Agricultural fluctuations and supply chain issues make real ingredients unpredictable. Flavor syntheses offer consistency and can be more cost-effective.

  • [07:30] Miszele: “Every year you’re guaranteed to have a shortage of something or another.”
  • [07:56] Miszele: “The artificial flavors are going to be cheaper. It's much stronger, you can use less of it.”

• Economic Scale: The global market for flavors is about $17 billion, involving specialized companies like Sensient, Givaudan, and IFF.

4. Inside the Flavorist’s Craft

• Flavor Creation:

  • Food manufacturers approach flavor companies with detailed requests (e.g., mango yogurt). The first step: a “mango interrogation.”
    • [13:55] Miszele: “What mango is your target? [...] How ripe is it? Do they want it a little less ripe, or do they want it very ripe, almost senescent?”

• Describing Flavor:

  • The lack of a shared language for flavors means that flavorists use “associations” and creative descriptors (“juicy tropical” or “honeyed richness”).

• Flavor Analysis:

  • To dissect flavors, analytic chemistry techniques like gas chromatography separate and identify hundreds of volatile compounds.
    • [15:12] Miszele: “I also know what family of compounds those are, what size they are and all that sort of thing, and how they fit into the whole web of flavor chemistry.”

• Blending and Testing:

  • Flavorists mix and test 16–25 compounds per flavor (for something like mango) in various carriers (oil, glycerin, etc.) and run shelf life simulations.
    • [16:08] Miszele: “16 to 25. Somewhere in that range for mangoes, depending on how much lifting the flavor has to do.”

• Cost & Economics:

  • Signature flavors are expensive to develop ($75,000–$1,000,000 per formula), but the per-serving cost in a final product is tiny—often less than a penny.
    • [19:19] Miszele: “Sulfur compounds, because they’re so difficult to make, are very expensive. And I’m talking thousands of dollars per kilo. Spilling a drop of that is spilling 400 bucks.”

• Secrecy and Intellectual Property:

  • These formulas are often closely guarded to protect a manufacturer’s unique product identity.
    • [20:12] Miszele: “When it comes down to making something unique, it’s the flavor. We want to protect it as much as the customer wants to protect their business.”

5. Why Do Artificial Flavors Taste “Fake”?

• Not all flavorings strive for 1:1 mimicry with real foods. Cultural factors and historical accidents play a role:
  • [21:07] Miszele: “Flavors become caricatures, and then they become recognized caricatures. [...] Watermelon Jolly Ranchers, you wouldn’t expect those to be based on the fruit themselves.”
• Some flavors (like “banana” in candy) are based on now-extinct fruit varieties.
  • [21:38] Crockett: “Banana flavoring, for instance, was supposedly based on a banana varietal called the Gros Michel, which was wiped out by a killer fungus in the 1950s.”
• Others, like “blue raspberry,” exist only as nostalgic, artificial flavors without natural analogues.
  • [22:25] Miszele: “Blue raspberry is its own flavor. It’s not raspberry. It’s not strawberry. It’s its own thing.”

6. Safety, Regulation, and Public Perception

• Many flavorings exploit a regulatory loophole (“generally recognized as safe,” or GRAS) to bypass intensive FDA review. [18:07]
• Flavorings and extractions are subject to far looser labeling requirements than “ingredients.”
  • [18:43] Miszele: “If I have an extraction of the garlic that’s a flavor, I can call it out if I want, I can say extractives of garlic, but I don’t have to.”
• Public skepticism over “chemicals in food” persists, but Miszele counters:
  • [23:15] Miszele: “I think a lot of people just fear the word chemistry. [...] Everything has flavors ... it's a product that has to go through a lot of work to get to your belly.”

Notable Quotes

| Timestamp | Quote | Speaker | |-----------|-------|---------| | 01:28 | “Everybody has the capacity for this. We have the sensitivity and we have the ability to differentiate. But what we don’t have is the language. And that’s really what a flavorist does, is build that language.” | Terry Miszele | | 05:07 | “You can have the same chemical compound, say menthol, into your breath mints. If it came from a mint plant and was extracted, you can say natural. For artificial, it would be something that does not come from a natural source.” | Terry Miszele | | 06:03 | “I can make an orange flavor that doesn’t have any orange in it.” | Terry Miszele | | 07:56 | “The artificial flavors are going to be cheaper. It’s much stronger. You can use less of it.” | Terry Miszele | | 15:12 | “The different classes, the different families of these compounds. So when I say it’s simple ester like ethylbutyrate or ethyl acetate, I smell that in the brain. That means something to me.” | Terry Miszele | | 19:19 | “Sulfur compounds, because they’re so difficult to make, are very expensive. And I’m talking thousands of dollars per kilo. Spilling a drop of that is spilling 400 bucks.” | Terry Miszele | | 21:07 | “Flavors become caricatures, and then they become recognized caricatures. So, you know, your watermelon Jolly Ranchers, you wouldn’t expect those to be based on the fruit themselves.” | Terry Miszele | | 23:15 | “I think a lot of people just fear the word chemistry. They fear the word flavor. But everything has flavors.” | Terry Miszele |

Memorable Moments & Timestamps

• [01:03] Miszele rattles off the aromatic compounds behind everyday herbs and spices.
• [04:25] Essentials of distilling fruit essence for lab-made flavors.
• [13:55–14:29] The process of “mango interrogation” when developing a custom flavor.
• [19:19] High-stakes nature of super-expensive flavor molecules.
• [21:07–22:59] Origin of “fake” fruit flavors and the nostalgia of non-existent flavors like “blue raspberry”.
• [23:15] Addressing public skepticism of lab-created flavors.

Conclusion

Natural and artificial flavors are pervasive, foundational, and intricately crafted elements of our food system. Their development merges science, economics, artistry, and a surprising amount of nostalgia and culture. As Miszele puts it, while we might fear the words "chemistry" or "flavor," these compounds—whether from a tree, a fruit, or a lab—are all around us, shaping nearly everything we eat or drink.

For anyone curious about what's really behind "natural flavors," this episode offers a flavorful education—equal parts science lesson and industry exposé.