Trehalose

I know that Trehalose is used as a food additive for a variety of purposes.  Is it allowed for use in organic processing as a natural flavor?

By Lindsay Fernandez-Salvador

Commonly referred to as Trehalose or ‘Treha’, this disaccharide sugar is naturally produced by plants, fungi, yeast and invertebrates. It serves as an anti-desiccant during drought and a nutrient transfer medium in insects. Treha is catabolized by the enzyme trehalase and is effectively digested by humans into glucose. Historically extracted from yeast cultures, it is now commonly extracted from starch. Because of its moisture retention capabilities and sugar content, it serves commercially as a preservative and mask for bitter flavors.

The FDA defines ‘flavoring agents and adjuvants’ as “substances added to impart or help impart a taste or aroma in food” in contrast with ‘flavor enhancers’ or “substances added to supplement, enhance or modify the original taste and/or aroma of a food, without imparting a characteristic taste or aroma of its own”. A Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) Notice grants that Trehalose serves a number of technical effects in food, including acting as a flavor enhancer and a nutritive sweetener, noting additional uses such as coloring adjuvant, humectant, stabilizer, thickener, synergist and texturizer.

Trehalose, as a flavor enhancer, does not impart a flavor of its own. Thus, it does not meet the identity of a natural flavor under the existing FDA definition and GRAS Notification, and thus is not permitted for use in nonorganic form under the listing of natural flavors at 205.605(a). However, certified organic Trehalose would be allowable for use in processing of foods labeled as organic.

Revised and updated in March 2018 by OMRI Technical Director Johanna Mirenda. This article was originally published in the Summer 2010 edition of the OMRI Materials Review newsletter.