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Plant-based antibiotic alternatives: Is there an overlooked weapon against infections in your spice rack?
by Anna Sandner
Food flavourings: how waste products are used to create your favourite taste
2.1.2026
Translation: Natalie McKay
Vanilla from paper waste, peach from castor oil, almond from paint thinner: (natural) flavourings in food are often obtained from surprising and unexpected sources. Here are 5 interesting examples.
Your strawberry yogurt has hardly seen any strawberries, your vanilla pudding hasn’t seen a real vanilla pod – and yet both taste intensely of them. This is the work of flavours that often have little to do with food. The food industry is astonishingly inventive. Here are five flavourings you’ve probably eaten before – but come from sources that may surprise you.
1. Vanilla flavour: when your pudding comes from a paper mill
The myth that strawberries in strawberry yogurt were actually sawdust persisted for a long time. This isn’t true. Vanillin, however, can actually be extracted from wood. Lignin (a waste product from paper production) is used for this purpose, to be precise. The lignin is treated with oxygen and alkalis, applying high pressure and heat, until it breaks apart chemically and releases vanillin, among other substances. It’s almost like a way of «upcycling» industrial waste.
Around 15 per cent of the vanillin produced worldwide is obtained from these «natural» wood sources. The vast majority – over 85 per cent – comes from crude oil derivatives such as guaiacol. Your eyes aren’t deceiving you: in most cases, vanilla flavour is made from crude oil.
But what’s the reason behind this? Real vanilla beans are extremely expensive (up to 600 euros per kilo), so industry almost always resorts to vanillin, a much cheaper alternative.
2. Peach flavour: taste heaven (or hell) from the laxative shelf
The secret behind peach flavouring isn’t the fruit itself, but gamma-decalactone. This is what gives real peaches their typical smell. Importantly, however, the flavouring isn’t usually obtained from fruit, but from castor oil.
Source: Azeem Amin/Shutterstock
Yes, the very oil grandparents used to keep in their cupboard for its harsh laxative effects. But don’t panic! By the time it ends up in your yogurt, the substance has lost its laxative effects. It’s fed to special yeast fungi (called Yarrowia lipolytica) in the lab. These microorganisms biochemically convert the ricinoleic acid – the substance responsible for the laxative effects – contained in the oil so you’re left with peach flavour at the end. The laxative effects disappear completely. As both the oil and the yeast are of natural origin, the product can be labelled as «natural flavour» on the packaging.
3. Almond flavour: marzipan made from paint thinner
Do you like the intense smell of Amaretto, or the cherry flavour typical of certain cough drops? That’s benzaldehyde. In nature, it’s produced by enzymatic cleavage when chewing bitter almonds or apricot kernels. This also releases toxic hydrocyanic acid, which is why you shouldn’t eat the kernels raw.
The majority of the benzaldehyde used in industry is produced synthetically, mainly from toluene. This is a solvent obtained from crude oil, and is also found in paint thinners. The synthetic flavouring is legal and safe if it’s been produced in a highly pure form. Natural benzaldehyde can also be extracted from cinnamon oil, but it’s significantly more expensive, and therefore remains a niche product.
4. Banana flavour: the scent that makes bees angry
You know those yellow foam bananas that taste sweeter and more intense than the real thing? That’s mostly down to isoamyl acetate. This substance occurs naturally in real bananas. But it’s also found in pears, and is even used by bees as an alarm signal (pheromone) to encourage fellow bees to sting.
Today, this flavouring agent is usually produced industrially by fermentation (with yeast or fungi) or by chemical synthesis. In chemical terms, it’s a compound of isoamyl alcohol and acetic acid. In the past, alcohol was often obtained from fusel oil, a byproduct of alcohol distillation. Today, it’s usually produced in a more targeted manner.
The best thing about it? If isoamyl acetate is obtained through natural fermentation processes (for example using bacteria or yeast), it can be called a «natural flavouring» under food law – even if it’s never seen a banana. In chemical terms, the molecule is identical anyway, regardless of whether it comes from the fruit, the lab or the fermentation tank.
Source: DeymosHR/Shutterstock
5. Pineapple flavour: fruit bomb made from rancid butter
Ethyl butyrate is the name of the flavouring that smells almost exactly like fresh pineapple. In industry, however, this isn’t usually extracted from the fruit, but from butyric acid.
And now here’s where things get a bit disgusting (or even more disgusting): butyric acid is the very substance that gives vomit and rancid butter their pungent smell. But what’s this got to do with pineapples? When butyric acid is slightly modified (esterified with alcohol, to be more precise), the smell instantly changes from vomit to tropical fruit bomb. A tiny molecular particle is the difference between feeling sick or craving a piña colada. Ethyl butyrate is used by the tonne in industry because it’s extremely cheap to produce.
Header image: Shutterstock
Anna Sandner
Senior Editor
Anna.Sandner@galaxus.deScience editor and biologist. I love animals and am fascinated by plants, their abilities and everything you can do with them. That's why my favourite place is always the outdoors - somewhere in nature, preferably in my wild garden.
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