We see continued conversations about synthetic food ingredients, but what are they, and how do they differ from natural ones? In this post, we look at synthetic vs natural ingredients.
Top Takeaways:
- Every ingredient is a chemical, even natural ones like water and vitamin C.
- Natural and synthetic ingredients can be chemically identical; your body reacts to structure, not source.
- Synthetic production may allow for greater purity, consistency, and sustainability.
- Natural sources may carry more variability and natural contaminants.
- Both natural and synthetic ingredients are regulated and tested for safety by agencies like the FDA and EFSA.
- The real risk depends on dose, exposure, and the presence of contaminants not whether an ingredient is natural or synthetic.
What is a chemical ingredient?
Every ingredient is a chemical, and every chemical is made of molecules. Even water, salt, and vitamins are chemicals. For the purposes of this blog, we’re looking more closely at what people think of when we’re talking about chemical ingredients.
A chemical ingredient is any specific chemical compound or mixture of compounds that’s added to a product to perform a function. Chemical ingredients are often the active ingredients that serve a function, whether it’s providing flavor, color, preservation, texture, cleaning power, adding nutritional value, or another effect.
In the contexts of regulatory, scientific, and product formulation, we see the term “chemical ingredient” to emphasize:
- the precise molecular identity of the ingredient
- the function it serves in the product
- the need to evaluate its safety, purity, and performance
Chemical ingredients are often viewed through a simple lens: they’re either natural or synthetic.
Naturally derived chemicals: These are compounds that are directly extracted or derived from natural sources such as plants, animals, or minerals. They often exist as part of complex mixtures in nature and can include substances like plant pigments, essential oils, and minerals
Synthetically derived chemicals: These are compounds produced through human-designed chemical processes, typically in laboratories or industrial settings. They may mimic natural substances (sometimes called “nature-identical”) or be entirely novel structures not found in nature.
What’s the difference between natural and synthetic chemical ingredients?
At the molecular level, natural and synthetic ingredients can be identical. In many cases, synthetic ingredients are designed to replicate natural compounds or even improve on them by removing unwanted impurities.
The key difference is where they come from:
| Natural | Synthetic | |
|---|---|---|
| Source | Extracted directly from plants, animals, or minerals | Made in a lab through chemical synthesis or fermentation |
| Production | Subject to natural variation in purity, potency, and contaminants | Highly controlled for consistency and purity |
| Examples | Vanilla extract from vanilla beans | Vanillin made in a lab |
Where do synthetic chemical ingredients come from?
Synthetic ingredients are made in laboratories or industrial settings using chemical synthesis, fermentation, or other manufacturing processes. The goal is to create a specific molecule in a controlled, scalable, and consistent way.
Here are the main sources and processes used to make synthetic ingredients:
- Petroleum-derived feedstocks: Many synthetic ingredients start with simple hydrocarbons obtained from petroleum or natural gas. These basic building blocks (like ethylene, propylene, benzene) are transformed through chemical reactions into more complex molecules.
- Plant-based feedstocks: Some “synthetic” ingredients are produced from plant oils, sugars, or starches that are chemically modified.
- Microbial fermentation: Certain synthetic ingredients are made by fermenting sugars with engineered bacteria, yeast, or fungi to produce the target molecule.
- Total chemical synthesis: Some ingredients are built entirely from scratch using a series of controlled chemical reactions, adding one functional group or molecule at a time.
Where do natural chemical ingredients come from?
Natural ingredients are derived directly from plants, animals, or minerals by using physical extraction, simple processing, or natural fermentation without synthetic chemical modification. The source is what defines them as “natural.”
- Plant-based sources: Many natural ingredients come from plants, harvested for their oils, pigments, flavors, or bioactive compounds.
- Animal-based sources: Some natural ingredients are derived from animals, either directly or as byproducts.
- Mineral-based sources: Certain natural ingredients come from mined minerals or earth materials.
- Microbial and fermentation sources: While less visible, natural fermentation processes can also produce ingredients without synthetic intervention.
Why make ingredients synthetically?
There are many reasons to use synthetic chemistry to create ingredients, including:
- To achieve higher purity by removing unwanted contaminants naturally found in plant/animal sources.
- To ensure consistency across batches because nature varies by season, location, climate, etc.
- To reduce cost, land, and resource use because synthetic production often requires less water, land, or harvesting.
- To avoid using scarce or unsustainable natural resources.
Does my body know the difference between a synthetic and a natural chemical ingredient?
If it’s a nature-identical chemical compound, no, your body doesn’t care how it was created or where it originated. Our bodies react to the chemical structure, not the source.
For example, our body cannot tell if the Vitamin C it uses came from an orange or from a supplement crafted in a laboratory because both are ascorbic acid and function the same in the body.
Do we use the same processes to synthesize chemicals from synthetic vs. plant sources?
The core chemical reactions to produce an ingredient can be the same, regardless of whether the starting material came from petroleum (synthetic feedstock) or plants (natural feedstock). But the initial steps and complexity of purification can differ.
Let’s dig deeper.
Same chemical reactions, different starting material
For many ingredients, once you’ve isolated the starting molecule (whether from a plant or synthetic feedstock), the downstream chemical reactions to modify or synthesize the final ingredient are identical.
For example, vanillin (the molecule responsible for vanilla flavor) can be extracted from vanilla beans or synthesized from guaiacol (a petrochemical derivative) or lignin (from wood pulp). The chemical synthesis pathway from guaiacol to vanillin uses the same reactions, regardless of the original source.
However, the molecule doesn’t “remember” its origin; it’s about the chemical structure, not the source.
Different purification and extraction steps are needed for natural sources
Plant and animal sources come with complex mixtures of other natural compounds, contaminants, and variability.
- Extracting a molecule from a plant often requires additional steps to purify it from chlorophylls, tannins, proteins, fats, etc.
- Synthetic feedstocks tend to be more chemically simple and consistent, so fewer steps may be needed to isolate the starting materials.
Some processes are unique to each source
Certain natural extraction methods have no equivalent in synthetic chemistry.
Conversely, some synthetic routes use petrochemical-specific reactions that aren’t applied in natural extraction, like cracking or catalytic reforming used in petroleum refining.
What is the risk?
Here’s where it gets nuanced. Both natural and synthetic ingredients can have risks, but the risks depend more on the dose and context than the source.
Risks of natural ingredients:
- Natural products can contain variable levels of active compounds depending on harvest, climate, and storage.
- Natural extracts can carry contaminants like heavy metals, pesticide residues, or microbial contamination.
- Some natural compounds are toxic at high doses (e.g., cyanide in bitter almonds, pyrrolizidine alkaloids in some herbs).
Risks of synthetic ingredients:
- Synthetics are usually purified and tested for known contaminants but may contain trace manufacturing byproducts.
- Some synthetic ingredients have higher bioavailability, which can amplify effects (good or bad) depending on dose.
- Public mistrust or misinformation can lead to confusion or fear around long chemical names.
Importantly, regulatory standards like those set by the FDA, EFSA, and other agencies minimize ingredient risks for BOTH natural or synthetic.
The good news.
With all the talk of natural vs. synthetic, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed, but the truth is that most ingredients are well-regulated, tested for safety, and designed with our health in mind. Whether natural or synthetic, ingredients undergo evaluation for safety, purity, and effectiveness, and synthetic production can actually improve consistency and reduce natural contaminants. Our bodies react to the chemical structure, not the source, so you don’t need to fear “synthetic” or automatically trust “natural.”
If you have any questions about ingredients or ideas for a blog post, please send us an email or submit your idea to us at go.msu.edu/cris-idea.