The U.S. flavor and fragrance industry occupies a very important place on the world scene (probably between 25% and 30% world market share). There is much confusion, misinterpretation and misunderstanding concerning its real market size and trends, which is due to an inadequate definition of terms and also to bad research and research methods. The classical definition of the different flavor and fragrance product categories, which we adopted in this study, follows:
--Natural essential oils and other natural products (absolutes; aqueous distillates and solutions; concretes; concentrates; enfleurage greases; oleoresins; terpenic by-products; animal secretions; etc.) --Aroma chemicals (natural and synthetic flavor and perfume materials) --Fragrance compounds/blends/mixtures --Flavor compounds/blends/mixtures (artificial and natural)