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According to The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) \u201cnatural\u201d means\u2026very little.\u00a0 The only guidelines FDA provides are that foods labeled as natural<\/a> should not contain added color, artificial flavors or synthetic substances.\u00a0 These loose guidelines, which were put into effect in 1993 as an informal policy, are puzzling consumers and food manufactures alike.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
So much contention surrounds the word natural that the Grocery Manufacturers Association came out in support of the Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act introduced in the House last April.\u00a0 The bill would require FDA to define the term \u201cnatural\u201d for use on food and beverage products, finally providing more guidance for industry and consumers.<\/p>\n
The issue with defining the word natural is that it\u2019s difficult to draw a line where natural stops and artificial begins. \u00a0Take an apple for example.\u00a0 That seems to be very natural as it grows directly from the ground and little to no processing occurs but would it still be considered natural if it contained synthetic chemical preservatives?\u00a0 What about synthetic pesticide residue? Could a very processed food like Bugles<\/a> be considered \u201cnatural\u201d if it was made entirely from products originating from the earth?<\/p>\n Not only was FDA faced with a massive grey zone of \u201cnatural\u201d definitions when they first requested comment on the word\u2019s definition twenty years ago, but they also needed to protect first amendment rights and therefore could not prohibit its use altogether.\u00a0 Ultimately, FDA took a hands off approach.\u00a0 Labeling practices have become more contentious, with political battles surrounding GMOs and country of origin labeling, and the time has come to address the issue.<\/p>\n At the end of the day, manufacturers just want to sell their product. Consumers have come to associate the term \u201cnatural\u201d with healthy food. And so, food manufacturers continue to label as many foods as possible natural to attract more buyers. The lack of a strict definition for \u201cnatural,\u201d however, causes it to be used in a variety of circumstances where it makes unhealthy foods, look healthy or \u201cgood\u201d to consumers.\u00a0 Even if FDA managed to pull together a definition for natural, it would no doubt be abused.\u00a0 Soda made from cane sugar or other natural ingredients would be deemed \u201cnatural\u201d (case in point Seven-Up<\/a>, which later dropped their 100% natural claims).\u00a0 The human body doesn\u2019t necessarily process it differently and it certainly isn\u2019t healthy no matter how the ingredients were produced.<\/p>\n Soda is just one example of the many possibilities where natural could be misused.\u00a0 The term \u201cnatural\u201d should simply be banned from labeling.\u00a0 It carries little to no meaning in terms of its perceived health benefits and should not serve as decision making tool for consumers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" According to The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) \u201cnatural\u201d means\u2026very little.\u00a0 The only guidelines FDA provides are that foods labeled as natural should not contain added color, artificial flavors […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13922,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2402"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2402"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2402\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17748,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2402\/revisions\/17748"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}