Ranch

Ranch is a popular salad dressing flavor profile, not a single ingredient. It is typically a creamy, tangy mixture of buttermilk, salt, garlic, onion, herbs (like chives, parsley, and dill), and spices (like black pepper and mustard seed). The base is often mayonnaise or sour cream, sometimes with yogurt or oil added.

Ranch flavor is added to foods to provide a savory, creamy, and slightly tangy taste. It is most commonly found in salad dressings, but also appears in dips, spreads, snack foods like chips and popcorn, and as a seasoning for chicken and vegetables.

Ranch flavorings themselves are generally recognized as safe (GRAS) by the FDA when used as intended. The health impact depends on the specific ingredients used in a ranch-flavored product, such as fat content, sodium, and added sugars. Regulatory bodies like JECFA and EFSA have evaluated many individual flavor compounds used in food, but ranch itself is a flavor profile, not a single regulated substance.