How can physico-chemical analyses help to guarantee the naturalness of your products: cosmetics, colourings, food flavourings, essential oils, etc.?

Food flavourings and essential oils are key ingredients in the agri-food and cosmetics sectors, but their naturalness can sometimes be called into question due to fraud or cross-contamination on production lines.

By naturalness we mean both the non-petrochemical origin of a substance and its link to a specific raw material (e.g. a plant).

 

Physico-chemical analysis techniques

These are now essential for guaranteeing the naturalness of these ingredients and differentiating between molecules that are said to be identical or artificial.

Chiral chromatography: is an analysis technique that can be used to differentiate between chiral molecules, i.e. molecules that have different physical and chemical properties despite their identical composition. This technique is often used to detect the presence of synthetic products in food flavourings or essential oils.

Isotope ratio mass spectrometry: is another analysis technique that identifies the isotopic composition of molecules. This technique can be used to detect isotopic differences between synthetic and natural molecules, thus guaranteeing the naturalness of food flavourings and essential oils.

Take vanilla flavour, for example, which exists as a natural flavour derived from vanilla pods, a synthetic flavour (naturally identical vanillin molecule) and an artificial flavour (ethyl vanillin).

 

OSE SERVICES is a company specialising in the physico-chemical analysis of food, cosmetic and pharmaceutical products.

We offer a full range of analytical services to help companies guarantee the naturalness of their ingredients.

If you have any questions about our services or would like to find out more about how we can help you guarantee the naturalness of your products, please don't hesitate to contact us!