[Avodah] re Coca cola ingredients

[Arie Folger]

RMB asked:
> Why would a company intentionally put in a natural flavor that didn't
> make a difference in the taste of the product? Or, as RRW put it,
> we're talking about "any ingredient -- consciously placed there for
> its taste". Seems like a waste of money to add a taste that is
> impossible to notice.

The company does not introduce all ingredients one by one, but rather
uses a preparate that contains various ingredients. Flavorings are
some of the most complex food additives and can have dozens or even
over a hundred ingredients. Sometimes this is the case because they
are trying to reproduce a natural flavor with other ingredients. For
example, apparently (this may be a myth, but so I am told by some
expert) the world's strawberry production is insufficient to provide
for all the strawberry and strawberry flavor in jams, yoghurts, etc.
So actual, real strawberry is augmented by other natural and/or
artificial products. To get the flavor right takes a lot of skill and
complex ingredients.

But none of the individual ingredients are felt, when tasting the
mixture, kal va'homer when tasting the final product that merely
contains the mixture.
-- 
Arie Folger,
Recent blog posts on http://ariefolger.wordpress.com/
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