I may seem to be a bit obsessed with the “natural flavors” companies generally put in their products, but they are such a cause for confusion. Recently I bought a box of Yogi Mayan Cocoa Spice tea. Out of habit I checked the label to see if it would be “safe”. Ingredients include:
Organic cinnamon bark, roasted chicory root, organic cardamom seed, stevia leaf, organic ginger root, organic clove bud, organic black pepper, organic cocoa shells, natural chocolate flavor, natural cocoa flavor, cocoa powder, natural vanilla flavor, natural cinnamon oil, natural cardamom oil, natural ginger oil.
Three “natural flavor” ingredients. It gets even more complicated on the website, because on the page for this particular flavor they only list the first nine ingredients and clump the others under “natural flavors” and “essential oils”. When I wandered over to the ingredients page, they defined their natural flavors as being “…derived from natural sources such as spices, fruit, herbs, roots, or many other plants or foods, whose significant function in food is flavoring”. The box states that the company is devoted to using all natural flavors and does not have laboratories where the flavors are concocted. Well, at least that’s promising. But as I’ve come to realize there is potential to use plant extracts which are potential allergens in certain foods (see my various rants about corn!)
I’ve written Yogi asking about the potential for allergens, and as of yet they haven’t written back. Well, I can’t expect everyone to be like KeVita.
http://www.yogiproducts.com/products/details/mayan-cocoa-spice/
http://www.yogiproducts.com/ingredients/N
(image from here)
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