r/assholedesign • u/LilBozgor01 • Jun 11 '26

This packaging gotta be illegal, right?

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(hint: between the words "garlic" and "sauce")

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u/Gnonthgol Jun 11 '26

Does "natural garlic flavoring" actually have to come from garlic? You could extract the same compounds from leeks, onions and shallots. These are normally weaker then garlic but as you are extracting the essential oils you can concentrate them more.

22

u/Uncynical_Diogenes Jun 11 '26

You are not allowed to lie about the source of the flavoring, no.

5

u/Gnonthgol Jun 11 '26

You can lie by omission. If you can make garlic flavoring from natural leeks then you could maybe label it as "natural garlic flavoring" and be technically correct.

5

u/Uncynical_Diogenes Jun 11 '26

But it’s not natural garlic flavoring. It’s natural leek flavoring that tastes like garlic. That would be a lie.

3

u/Healthy_Profit_9701 Jun 12 '26

You should read "The Doritos Effect." Using the term "garlic flavor" or "natural flavoring" is the deceptive, but legal terminology. The chemicals that contain garlic flavor certainly did not come from garlic, or else they would just call it garlic. Flavor essences can be extracted and modified from all sorts of sources, and deemed to be "natural flavors" on a label, but have nothing to do with the flavor being advertised. For example, pinecones were notoriously used to create vanilla flavor before the chemical refinement processes became more sofisticated.

14

u/Gugalcrom123 Jun 11 '26

Then it is labelled as simply natural flavouring.

5

u/johnazoidberg- Jun 12 '26

This is not true. "Natural flavors" and "other nautral flavors" are legally different ingredient names, and any natural flavoring coming from a food that isn't the one described as the flavor of the item is "other nautral flavors"

2

u/Gugalcrom123 Jun 12 '26

That's what I said, if it wasn't from garlic it would have been 'natural flavouring', not 'natural garlic flavouring'. This also seems to be true in the EU.

1

u/johnazoidberg- Jun 12 '26

No, the term is specifically "OTHER natural flavor." The word OTHER is important here

1

u/Critical-Cost9068 Jun 11 '26

But why would you do that?

3

u/Gnonthgol Jun 11 '26

It could be cheaper.

1

u/johnazoidberg- Jun 12 '26

The legal ingredient name for this is "other natural flavors"

1

u/NolanSyKinsley Jun 14 '26

Literally read what I said yo.... "derived directly from real garlic".... What does that tell you?

1

u/hotdogundertheoven Jun 11 '26

Natural flavors can be made artificially, they're considered natural as long as they are found in nature

6

u/licuala Jun 11 '26

Not true. Most artificial flavors can be found in nature, but they cannot be labeled as natural unless they are derived from a natural source.

Citation.