7 ms·

Scents in brands of body wash, chicken stock and canned drink come from Givaudan

53 points by pmcpinto 10y ago

pdpi 10y ago
That's a name I hadn't heard in a long while. Almost a decade ago, I worked on a project with them, where we added tracking for Halal/Kosher status of their additives — As many of their products end up in food, ingredients coming into the factories were marked as Halal and/or Kosher, and those properties had to be correctly bubbled up the intermediates all the way to final products.
HarryHirsch 10y ago
There's also Symrise, Firmenich, IFF and Takasago. No need to boost Givaudan over its competitors. Fun fact: Symrise used to be two companies, Dragoco and Haarmann & Reimer, both based in Holzminden, Germany, and separated by a two-lane road.
vanattab 10y ago
Does anyone know a good website were you can buy small amounts of different "engineered food flavorings? I would like to experiment with them in my cooking.
- HarryHirsch 10y ago
  One could try any of the chemical supply houses: Aldrich, Alfa, TCI, those are the biggest. Maybe they'll even let private parties order non-hazardous materials. (What was it again about censorship: political censorship is only skin-deep but censorship of the market goes to the bone?)
  - mattkrause 10y ago
    If you knew exactly what you wanted, I suppose you could probably get it from Sigma Aldrich. However, it will be listed as something like "isoamyl acetate" and not "banana flavor", so you would need to know exactly what you want. Also, make sure you get an edible/food grade version!
- Baeocystin 10y ago
  https://www.amazon.com/LorAnn-Oils/b/ref=bl_dp_s_web_2595698011?ie=UTF8&node=2595698011&field-lbr_brands_browse-bin=LorAnn+Oils https://www.amazon.com/LorAnn-Oils/b/ref=bl_dp_s_web_2595698... LorAnn Oils has a ton of different flavorings. Mostly focused on sweets/ice cream, but there's a lot of fun stuff to be found. A dash of 'cake batter' flavor in one's waffles is quite good.
- soylentcola 10y ago
  Interestingly enough, there are a lot more options nowadays thanks to the "e-cig" or "vape" market. It's always been available for hobbyists/non-industrial/consumer use in candy, etc. but now there are a lot more sites where you can order from multiple vendors of food-grade flavor concentrates. I actually learned a lot more than I'd expected regarding what compounds and extracts go into them and how they combine. If nothing else, the "DIY vape liquid" community is really into researching the specific components since the goal is both to make something that tastes good and also provides the safer alternative to smoking that they were after in the first place. Anyway, I'm getting off topic but you'll definitely find loads of info on those sorts of forums. Common brands include The Flavor Apprentice, LorAnn, Capella, FlavourArt, and Inawera among others.
- mattkrause 10y ago
  I've gotten some from The Perfumer's Apprentice (here: https://shop.perfumersapprentice.com/ https://shop.perfumersapprentice.com/). They sell scents as well as flavors. Most of the flavors come in 4 or 15 ml bottles and only cost a few bucks each. You do have to play around a bit with the concentration though--some of the flavors have a narrow range where they taste good and not too subtle nor too overwhelming and fake. We made a pretty decent clone of a pumpkin spice latte, plus some other dessert-type stuff.
praptak 10y ago
There is a rational component in the fear of artificial flavours. They serve to further dissociate what's tasty from what is good for you to eat.
- HappyTypist 10y ago
  Exactly. People point towards sugar being natural and awful. Well, if you're getting sugar from a mango, banana or watermelon, you're enjoying lots of fibre, nutrients, vitamins, and chances are you will probably just consume 10g of sugar tops from fruit.
  - hammock 10y ago
    A large banana, half a mango or a wedge of watermelon all have about 20g of sugar. Yes they do have a few grams of fiber as well. Our produce has been selectively bred for appearance and sugar content- it contains less nutritive value than it did 50 or 100 years ago.
- cgs 10y ago
  If you're curious about artificial and natural flavors, "The Dorito Effect" is a great read on the topic. What blew me away: "Naturally flavored" is marketed as "healthy" when it is anything but. Natural flavors are just as bad as artificial flavors. You are adding chemicals to food to make them more palatable, but not enhancing nutrition. Those chemical compounds happen to occur in nature, but the process of isolating and extracting them then adding them back to food is just as bad as adding synthesized compounds (artificial flavors). We're so concerned with calories, but this is the real root cause of the obesity epidemic: calories without nutrition.
  - Latty 10y ago
    The word "Natural" is a huge red flag for me. It's consistently only used by marketers to try and imply that there is something good about a product, without actually having anything good to say. If your product is healthy, you call it healthy. If your product is nutritious, you call it nutritious. "Natural" is just an excuse - we found this thing in something natural, so now we can use it. It tells you nothing of value about the product, but for some reason people have associations between "Natural" and "Good". In fact, artificial is often much better for you - artificial items are generally more strictly regulated and therefore tested, much more accurately measured and often much more sustainable and efficient to produce. As is commonly pointed out, I can provide you with some very natural poisons.
hockeybias 10y ago
Frankly my dear, I don't...
growlix 10y ago
There's an interesting New Yorker article from a few years ago that profiles some the firms and individuals involved in taste/scent making: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/11/23/the-taste-makers http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/11/23/the-taste-maker...
beezle 10y ago
Can somebody tell me why it is nearly impossible to find unscented body (shower) wash? Even Ivory only seems to make scented versions.
- Nadya 10y ago
  If you shop in a generic store instead of online or at a specialized shop - it is because it is unpopular. If you buy off Amazon, just as an example, you have a few dozen options if you search "unscented body wash" . People like to "smell clean" - not necessarily "be clean". So scented things are a big part of that.
- mirimir 10y ago
  Demand? You can make your own. Example: https://wellnessmama.com/3701/homemade-shampoo/ https://wellnessmama.com/3701/homemade-shampoo/
- dpark 10y ago
  Definitely a lack of demand. I buy this (online or in my local Target when I make it there): Aveeno Skin Relief Body Wash, 18 Oz https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0009EILAS/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_QZg1ybAJA4DYC https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0009EILAS/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_QZg1...
DrScump 10y ago
That mostly-unrelated video of the Ember mug below the article text oddly parallels the current thread in Dilbert about Wally's new coffee-warmer-using-waste-phone-heat invention.

53 points by pmcpinto 10y ago

pdpi 10y ago

That's a name I hadn't heard in a long while. Almost a decade ago, I worked on a project with them, where we added tracking for Halal/Kosher status of their additives — As many of their products end up in food, ingredients coming into the factories were marked as Halal and/or Kosher, and those properties had to be correctly bubbled up the intermediates all the way to final products.

HarryHirsch 10y ago

There's also Symrise, Firmenich, IFF and Takasago. No need to boost Givaudan over its competitors. Fun fact: Symrise used to be two companies, Dragoco and Haarmann & Reimer, both based in Holzminden, Germany, and separated by a two-lane road.

vanattab 10y ago

Does anyone know a good website were you can buy small amounts of different "engineered food flavorings? I would like to experiment with them in my cooking.

HarryHirsch 10y ago
One could try any of the chemical supply houses: Aldrich, Alfa, TCI, those are the biggest. Maybe they'll even let private parties order non-hazardous materials. (What was it again about censorship: political censorship is only skin-deep but censorship of the market goes to the bone?)
- mattkrause 10y ago
  If you knew exactly what you wanted, I suppose you could probably get it from Sigma Aldrich. However, it will be listed as something like "isoamyl acetate" and not "banana flavor", so you would need to know exactly what you want. Also, make sure you get an edible/food grade version!
Baeocystin 10y ago
https://www.amazon.com/LorAnn-Oils/b/ref=bl_dp_s_web_2595698011?ie=UTF8&node=2595698011&field-lbr_brands_browse-bin=LorAnn+Oils https://www.amazon.com/LorAnn-Oils/b/ref=bl_dp_s_web_2595698... LorAnn Oils has a ton of different flavorings. Mostly focused on sweets/ice cream, but there's a lot of fun stuff to be found. A dash of 'cake batter' flavor in one's waffles is quite good.
soylentcola 10y ago
Interestingly enough, there are a lot more options nowadays thanks to the "e-cig" or "vape" market. It's always been available for hobbyists/non-industrial/consumer use in candy, etc. but now there are a lot more sites where you can order from multiple vendors of food-grade flavor concentrates. I actually learned a lot more than I'd expected regarding what compounds and extracts go into them and how they combine. If nothing else, the "DIY vape liquid" community is really into researching the specific components since the goal is both to make something that tastes good and also provides the safer alternative to smoking that they were after in the first place. Anyway, I'm getting off topic but you'll definitely find loads of info on those sorts of forums. Common brands include The Flavor Apprentice, LorAnn, Capella, FlavourArt, and Inawera among others.
mattkrause 10y ago
I've gotten some from The Perfumer's Apprentice (here: https://shop.perfumersapprentice.com/ https://shop.perfumersapprentice.com/). They sell scents as well as flavors. Most of the flavors come in 4 or 15 ml bottles and only cost a few bucks each. You do have to play around a bit with the concentration though--some of the flavors have a narrow range where they taste good and not too subtle nor too overwhelming and fake. We made a pretty decent clone of a pumpkin spice latte, plus some other dessert-type stuff.

praptak 10y ago

There is a rational component in the fear of artificial flavours. They serve to further dissociate what's tasty from what is good for you to eat.

HappyTypist 10y ago
Exactly. People point towards sugar being natural and awful. Well, if you're getting sugar from a mango, banana or watermelon, you're enjoying lots of fibre, nutrients, vitamins, and chances are you will probably just consume 10g of sugar tops from fruit.
- hammock 10y ago
  A large banana, half a mango or a wedge of watermelon all have about 20g of sugar. Yes they do have a few grams of fiber as well. Our produce has been selectively bred for appearance and sugar content- it contains less nutritive value than it did 50 or 100 years ago.
cgs 10y ago
If you're curious about artificial and natural flavors, "The Dorito Effect" is a great read on the topic. What blew me away: "Naturally flavored" is marketed as "healthy" when it is anything but. Natural flavors are just as bad as artificial flavors. You are adding chemicals to food to make them more palatable, but not enhancing nutrition. Those chemical compounds happen to occur in nature, but the process of isolating and extracting them then adding them back to food is just as bad as adding synthesized compounds (artificial flavors). We're so concerned with calories, but this is the real root cause of the obesity epidemic: calories without nutrition.
- Latty 10y ago
  The word "Natural" is a huge red flag for me. It's consistently only used by marketers to try and imply that there is something good about a product, without actually having anything good to say. If your product is healthy, you call it healthy. If your product is nutritious, you call it nutritious. "Natural" is just an excuse - we found this thing in something natural, so now we can use it. It tells you nothing of value about the product, but for some reason people have associations between "Natural" and "Good". In fact, artificial is often much better for you - artificial items are generally more strictly regulated and therefore tested, much more accurately measured and often much more sustainable and efficient to produce. As is commonly pointed out, I can provide you with some very natural poisons.

hockeybias 10y ago

Frankly my dear, I don't...

growlix 10y ago

There's an interesting New Yorker article from a few years ago that profiles some the firms and individuals involved in taste/scent making: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/11/23/the-taste-makers http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/11/23/the-taste-maker...

beezle 10y ago

Can somebody tell me why it is nearly impossible to find unscented body (shower) wash? Even Ivory only seems to make scented versions.

Nadya 10y ago
If you shop in a generic store instead of online or at a specialized shop - it is because it is unpopular. If you buy off Amazon, just as an example, you have a few dozen options if you search "unscented body wash" . People like to "smell clean" - not necessarily "be clean". So scented things are a big part of that.
mirimir 10y ago
Demand? You can make your own. Example: https://wellnessmama.com/3701/homemade-shampoo/ https://wellnessmama.com/3701/homemade-shampoo/
dpark 10y ago
Definitely a lack of demand. I buy this (online or in my local Target when I make it there): Aveeno Skin Relief Body Wash, 18 Oz https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0009EILAS/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_QZg1ybAJA4DYC https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0009EILAS/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_QZg1...

DrScump 10y ago

That mostly-unrelated video of the Ember mug below the article text oddly parallels the current thread in Dilbert about Wally's new coffee-warmer-using-waste-phone-heat invention.