Beef has natural umami and flavor enhancing fat, it doesn’t need anything extra. Of course, that hasn’t stopped processor/distributors from adding totally unnecessary “natural flavors” to ground beef.
By adding “natural flavors” the producers are hoping to make you loyal to their brand over others. They don’t care that you don’t need the extra ingredient, they only care that it might increase your brand loyalty and therefore increase their sales.
Both of the products shown here are sold at Walmart.
According to the label on the brand shown above, there are no other ingredients in this product besides ground beef.
Local grocery stores that grind their beef in-store are less likely to have added ingredients than a large store like Walmart so you may want to get fresher ground beef from your local Safeway, Fred Meyer, Kroger, etc.