Flavourings FAQ

Please remember our flavours are ‘high strength’ so only a few drops are usually needed. As a guide measure start with a dose rate of around 0.15%. For example for 1 kg of product you might start with 1.5 grams (approx. 20 drops) of flavouring and for 100 grams of product you might start with 0.15 grams (approx. 2 drops) . Increase or decrease according to required taste. Some flavours may have a ‘Do not exceed’ maximum dose rate which is printed on the bottle labels or included in the MSDS data sheets, please keep this limit in mind when calculating your dose rate.

To help you dispense drops of flavour, our 15ml bottles have a built in dripper. If the flavour does not flow when holding the bottle down at an angle, then try completely inverting the bottle and wait for the first drop to come through – after this first drop you will usually find further drops come through at a more regular speed.

Remember that our flavours have no added sugars or sweeteners, they are not syrups but are manufacturing grade professional flavours. Therefore if you are adding our flavours to food or drinks that are not already sweetened (eg. dairy, yoghurt or drinks) you may need to add a sweetener to some flavours to bring our the flavour to your taste. An example of such a recipe is ‘Cherry Flavours Yoghurt‘ where honey is used.

It is recommended that the flavouring is added to a wet ingredient, if possible, to help it spread throughout the food product. You could also add the flavouring to a small amount of water to dilute it then add this solution to your recipe.

Foodie Flavours are high strength – to see how far Foodie Flavours can go please read our recent kitchen feature.

When Baking or Cooking

As a general guide you will need to use more Foodie Flavour in baked or cooked products. It is recommended you make trial batches of your products with Foodie Flavours to see what dose suits your particular processing. For example for baked products make up small biscuits or cakes to determine how well the dose of flavouring responds to baking. When baking some of the flavour may ‘flash off’ due to heat, so you may need to increase the dose to compensate.

You can purchase direct from our online shop, or if you would like to find a stockist of Foodie Flavours near you use our stockist map.

If you are looking for 15ml sized flavours you can view the list on our homepage. If you don’t see what you’re looking for let us know and we’ll add it to our list for potential new flavours.

For sizes 1L and larger we have a seemingly endless list of flavours. So drop us an email with what you’re looking for and we’ll happily supply any information you need. You can place orders for these flavours via email at sales@foodieflavours.com.

Foodie Flavours’ Natural Flavourings and extracts are not syrups and so do not contain any added sugar. When adding to foodstuffs that contain sugar such as buttercream, cake mix and most desserts – the taste profile will be as expected. However, if you are adding the flavour to food that contains little or no sugar then you may need to add something to sweeten the food to bring out the correct taste. For example, if using our flavours in natural yoghurt, in most cases you may need to add honey, sugar or another sweetener to bring out the correct taste.

Our flavourings do not contain vegetable oil. They are also gluten free and dairy free. Full details for each flavour are in the data sheet available from each product page on this website.

Our flavourings are manufactured to a GFSI compliant quality standard (BRCGS AA+ Standard) and the Council Directive 93/43/EEC on the hygiene of foodstuffs. These directives state basic hygiene and food safety manufacturing standards.

“Flavouring” can be used to describe any flavouring whether natural or chemical. Most commonly “flavouring” is used indicate chemical flavouring.

“Natural Flavouring” is used where the flavouring component is derived from natural sources, but where less than 95% is derived from the actual flavour name source (e.g. strawberry). Foodie Flavours’ Natural Flavouring is derived from plant materials only and are therefore suitable for Vegans & Vegetarians.

“Natural X Flavouring” – for example ‘Natural Raspberry Flavouring’. This can only be used when the flavouring component is at least 95% derived from the actual named source (e.g. Raspberry) and the remaining 5% must still be natural. A declaration of “natural raspberry flavouring with other natural flavouring” is permitted when the flavouring component derived from the named fruit/plant is less than 95%.

Most flavour ingredients are oil soluble and so do not disperse in water. Since most food products contain water as their solvent, emulsifiers and carriers are used in flavours to disperse the oil soluble ingredients.

Propylene glycol is a food grade, clear, colourless, solvent, which readily retains moisture (hygroscopic). In most cases Propylene Glycol render the flavour soluble in water. Propylene glycol, known as PG in the food industry, is very effective in dispersing oil soluble flavour ingredients. Another commonly used solvent is ethyl alcohol which also renders the flavour soluble in water and beverages.

The propylene glycol used in products from Foodie Flavours Ltd meets the requirements of the purity criteria detailed in the European Council Directive 2000/63/EC for food additives.

Propylene glycol also acts as a preservative in flavours and many flavourings would not be completely stable without propylene glycol.

Triacetin, like propylene glycol, is used as a food grade solvent.  It can be used in some flavours to dissolve powdered ingredients, such as vanillin and heliotrope.  Sometimes triacetin is used to improve the stability of flavours that are “heat stressed” in baking and cooking applications. Triacetin also renders flavouring substances dispersible in fat, therefore suitable for use in chocolate.

As an approximate guide Foodie Flavours can be at least 10 times stronger than most regular off the shelf supermarket flavours. Our flavourings are highly concentrated – be sure to wipe up any spills quickly.  Prolonged contact with plastic, counter tops, and other surfaces may cause damage.

Flavourings are for use in foodstuffs only and not to be consumed directly.

You should avoid contact with eyes and skin. Some of the flavours are also highly flammable – full details are available in the specification sheets available on the product pages of this website.

Foodie Flavours are formulated and approved ONLY for use in food and drink applications. They are not approved or recommended for vaping and e-cigarette applications.