Appropriate physical process

This means that a avoring preparation was by default always natural and that extracts and essential oils (obtained by appropriate physical processes such as distillation and solvent extraction) from the material of vegetable origin (e.g., plant material) could be considered as avoring preparation and thus natural. ... 

More important than the de nition on natural as such (Art. 3.2 (c)) however is how appropriate physical process is de ned. 

The de nition of appropriate physical process according to the avor regulation is described in Art. 3.2 (k) ... 

This de nition refers to Annex II, which means that all processes listed in Annex II also fall under the de nition of appropriate physical processes. ... 

It can be concluded that according to this de nition, essential oils and extracts obtained from plant material material of vegetable origiri) prepared by distillation (which is a traditional food preparation process listed in Annex II), followed by an appropriate physical process, can be considered as a avoring preparation and thus natural, as long as the chemical nature of the components is not intentionally modi ed during the physical process. 

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