Extracts and Flavorings... Nutrition Facts? Topic
NateHevens
01/19/18
I'm going to start off by saying that I'm NOT looking for vanilla extract. I've already got that.
We have other extracts and flavorings in the house, however. One of them is orange extract. It's basically "all-natural"/"organic" pure concentrated orange flavoring. So here's what confuses me...
While I am aware that one already exists in the system (Extra Special valencia orange extract [side note: couldn't the person who contributed it figure out grams and ounces, too? Not that hard... but anyways...], I was curious to see what other extracts, especially orange extracts, had for nutrition facts out there. So I googled it and... everything I find has zero nutritional data whatsoever.
And that makes absolutely no sense to me. How can vanilla extract have so many nutrients, thus having calories, while literally every other extract I can find has... nothing... like they're just air, or not even that?
Does anyone know if nutrition information exists anywhere for extracts other than vanilla (like orange and such), or am I SOL on that one?
Dietitian
01/22/18
replied to NateHevens
Great question, NateHevens! Baking extracts are not required to have nutrition labels in the U.S. If I am using an alcohol-based extract, I will use our generic vanilla extract to account for calories and alcohol and the small amount of carbs: Vanilla extract. This food item comes from USDA Standard Reference item# 2050 Vanila Extract:
https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/show?ndbno=02050&fg=2&man=&lfacet=&format=Abridged&count=&max=25&offset=0&sort=f&qlookup=&rptfrm=nl&nutrient1=221&nutrient2=&nutrient3=&subset=1&totCount=14&measureby=m
If you want the vanilla extract nutrition info but want to change the name, then use the copy & customize feature in web program or Android app. iPhone app will have copy & customize feature soon.
I have emailed McCormick company for nutrition data for all of their extracts. However, my guess is that all of their alcohol-based extracts will use the USDA vanilla extract data. But I'll post when I hear from them.
Note that most extracts will have a very low calories content since we consume a very small amount. For instance, many recipes call for only 1 tsp for an entire batch of something. When you look at one with a 100g serving size, that is a huge amount of extract that would never be a serving size consumed.
BTW, you can block or hide user contributed food items to avoid finding items that others have data entered. You can do this in MyNetDiary settings. I do this simply because contributed items tend to have too many errors compared to system-entered foods (which do not have "contributed" in the food name).
Hope this info is helpful.
Best,
Kathy Isacks, MPS, RDN, CDE
Consulting dietitian with MyNetDiary
Dietitian
01/23/18
replied to NateHevens
Hi again NateHevens,
McCormick company did not give me detailed nutrition info for their extracts other than what I copied & pasted below. I would go with what I described in my post above - use vanilla extract for calories and nutrient content for all alcohol-based baking extracts.
Use "imitation vanilla extract no alcohol" for non-alcohol based baking extracts. We have both of those food items in MyNetDiary (they come from the USDA database).
Here's a copy & paste from McCormick's reply to me:
"Extracts do not make a significant contribution to the nutritional content of foods on a per-serving basis. However, they do contain small amounts of calories and sugars. Based on the standard FDA serving size of one-fourth teaspoon, most contain less that 5 calories and 1 gram of sugar. Unfortunately, we are unable to supply specific nutritional information for each extract. If we can be of further assistance, please feel free to reply by email or call us at 1-800-632-5847 between the hours of 9:30 am and 7:00 pm, Monday - Friday EST. We hope to have the continued pleasure of serving you."
Let me know if you would like more assistance.
Thanks,
Kathy
Extracts and Flavorings... Nutrition Facts?
