FORT W ORTH STAR TELEGRAM, TX
07-09-06
WHAT'S IN A LABEL?
Different firms use different standards for what's 'natural'
BY BARRY SHLACHTER
Stumped over what's "natural" food?
You're not alone.
Jana Morgan considers herself a careful shopper who nonetheless was
somewhat stumped when asked whether she considered high-fructose corn
syrup and partially hydrogenated vegetable oil--a sweetener and a fat widely
used by food manufacturers--to be "natural."
"I am not really sure. I know 'organic,'" said Morgan, who operates a UPS Store
in Hulen Bend shopping center in Fort Worth with her husband. "My assumption
is that a lot of processed food will not be purely natural."
The federal Agriculture Department clearly defines "natural" when applied to
labeling meat and poultry: no artificial or synthetic ingredients, including added
hormones, and minimally processed.
But the Food and Drug Administration says it has no plans to do likewise for the
galaxy of groceries it regulates.
With no clear definition, confusion and even controversy have been generated.
Consumer groups are urging that the FDA restrict the use of the word "natural"
and demand that food manufacturers stop being so free with it on labeling until
the government acts. This spring, one organization threatened legal action
against a popular soft drink, "100% Natural" 7UP.
"'Natural' means nothing," said Urvashi Rangan, a toxicologist and a senior
scientist at Consumer Reports, which has urged government action. "You have to
flip the box over and examine the ingredient list. You've got to do your
homework. But there's no requirement for what the ingredients have to be, to be
considered 'natural.'"
The resulting vacuum has allowed manufacturers and supermarket chains to
divine their own, often conflicting, definitions.
Critics say products labeled "natural" or "all-natural" should contain neither highfructose corn syrup nor hydrogenated vegetable oil, whose trans fatty acids are
created in an industrial process.
Whole Foods, for example, does not sell "natural"-labeled foods if they contain
hydrogenated oil.
Kroger, the nation's biggest food retailer after Wal-Mart, sells a store-brand
granola, "100% Natural Cereal," that contains partially hydrogenated cottonseed
and soybean oil. But none of its natural-category products include high-fructose
corn syrup, Kroger spokesman Gary Huddleston says.
Zone Perfect All-Natural Nutrition Bars, made by a unit of Abbott Laboratories,
have no hydrogenated oil but do have high-fructose corn syrup.
And the newly reformulated "100% Natural" 7UP similarly uses the ubiquitous
corn-derived sweetener.
Studies have linked hydrogenated oil, which contains trans fatty acids, to heart
disease. The Harvard University School of Public Health, which has warned
about health risks of the highly processed oil since the early 1990s, said in an
April study that removing trans fats from the industrial food supply could prevent
tens of thousands of heart attacks and cardiac deaths each year.
Although high-fructose corn syrup has detractors, scientists have yet to find a
conclusive link to obesity and have not determined whether it's any less healthy
than other sweeteners, says Marion Nestle, a New York University nutritionist
and author of What to Eat.
But although consumer groups argue that calling the corn sweetener "natural"
misleads the public, manufacturers maintain it's as natural as other approved
additives.
With the organic and natural market burgeoning, billions of dollars are at stake.
Strict guidelines govern the growing and processing of organic food products, but
industry analysts frequently lump them with so-called natural items as a segment
category.
Sales for all-natural and organic products will soar to $46.1 billion in 2010 from
$28.3 billion in 2005, predicts Packaged Facts, a New York market-research firm.
Although the Iowa State University Agricultural Marketing Resource Center
says organic foods are outpacing natural ones in sales growth, products labeled
all-natural were the most frequent "positive" new product category in North
America during 2003, according to Mintel, a research firm. One study has shown
that shoppers are willing to pay 30 percent more for food products labeled
"natural."
In 1993, the FDA indicated it "would consider establishing a definition" because
consumers regard many uses of the term as "noninformative." But late last
month, spokesman Mike Herndon said there is no plan to do so.
The agency, he said in an e-mail, does not object to the word "natural" on food
labels when it's used in a non-misleading manner and when the food does not
contain "added color, artificial flavors or synthetic substances."
"The loophole," said Rangan of Consumer Reports, "is that they don't define
synthetic."
Food and beverage processors use high-fructose corn syrup because it is much
cheaper than sugar. Cost is also a factor with hydrogenated oils, which can be
manipulated to provide the needed consistency for a particular product while
prolonging shelf life.
Developments this year focused new attention on the issue.
In February, the Sugar Association urged the FDA to define just what is "natural."
Facing keen competition from rival sweeteners, sugar refiners want a definition
that would bar the use of high-fructose corn syrup in products for which a
"natural" claim is made. It asked the agency to borrow the USDA's "minimally
processed" qualification, which means that that an ingredient's molecular
structure is not fundamentally altered.
General Mills uses high-fructose corn syrup in its Nature Valley Brand "100%
Natural" Crunchy Granola Bars.
But Kirstie Foster, a company spokeswoman, said that there is more than one
way to produce the sweetener and that its supplier uses a "natural process."
The Corn Refiners Association maintains that high-fructose corn syrup, however
it's made, is a natural ingredient because it contains no artificial or synthetic
materials or color additives.
"The Food and Drug Administration has concluded that 'natural' flavors include
those products derived from processes such as corn refining," it says. "By
contrast, products that are food colors or are chemically modified are not
considered natural."
But the Sugar Association argues that no matter how you do it, whether by using
enzymes or chemicals, the molecular structure is irreversibly changed and
consumers would grasp that it's no longer a natural ingredient if they were told as
much.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nonprofit group based in
Washington, not only backs the sugar industry's appeal for a tighter FDA
definition, it announced in May that it planned to sue Cadbury Schweppes, the
maker of 7UP, for using what it called a misleading "natural" label. It will seek
unspecified restitution, corrective advertising and attorney fees.
"Pretending that soda made with high-fructose syrup is 'all natural' is just plain
old deception," said Michael Jacobson, the group's executive director. "Highfructose corn syrup isn't something you could cook up from a bushel of corn in
your kitchen, unless you happen to be equipped with centrifuges, hydroclones,
ion-exchange columns and buckets of enzymes."
Cadbury Schweppes, which also makes Dr Pepper, isn't buying any of it.
"We stand by our product and invite consumers to decide for themselves if they
like 7UP Natural," said spokesman Chris Barnes. "We're very encouraged by
early results. Consumer feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, and 7UP
volume has grown double digits nationally in recent weeks."
Barnes asserted that all of the drink's five ingredients, including high-fructose
corn syrup, "meet the FDA's guidelines for natural flavors and product labeling,
and consumers can find what they need to know on every can or bottle to make
an informed choice."
"High-fructose corn syrup is a natural sweetener made from corn," he said. "Like
ordinary table sugar, HFCS is composed of fructose and glucose, and there's
nothing artificial or synthetic in it. A wide range of all-natural products, from
bread, granola and jellies to beverages such as juices and teas, are produced
with the same sweetener, which puts 7UP in good company."
As for the CSPI, spokesman Jeff Cronin said it had just been contacted by a 7UP
lawyer and so will hold off on filing the suit to give the soda maker "an opportunity
to address our concerns." Whatever the outcome with the uncola, Cronin said the
group is planning legal action against another manufacturer over corn syrup in a
product labeled "all-natural."