Natural Products Authenticity Testing Using techniques for
stable isotope and radiocarbon measurement During the 1990s, the
CAIS pioneered the development of isotopic analytical methods
that are now routinely used to differentiate natural and
synthetic flavors, ingredients, and manufacturing methods for
the detection of adulteration in food and beverage Why test for
naturalness? Naturally-derived components of foods, flavors, and
beverages are obtained through expensive and time-consuming
extractive procedures. Yet with present technology, botanical
extracts and essential oils can be replaced by materials that
can be inexpensively synthesized from fossil fuels, and in
sufficient purity so as to be chemically identical to their
natural, botanically grown counterparts. The growing consumer
demand for naturally-derived materials in foods, flavors, and
beverages provides an economic incentive to fraudulently label a
synthetic food product component as “natural”, thus, it is
necessary to be able to distinguish the