We see “natural” labels on all kinds of food products every time we go shopping. The labels can be found on fruit juices, meats, snacks and many other products. However, there is some confusion about the term and how it is used.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has already received several petitions asking the agency to define the word, “natural,” and one petition asking that the word be struck from all food product labels. There have already been requests from Federal courts, asking for a determination of the term in lawsuits where genetically engineered foods are part of the food product.
And because of the rising number of food product ingredients, as well as the many production methods now employed, the FDA has decided to ask for input from the public.
Current FDA standards are murky, at best
Federal oversight on the word “natural” as it applied to food products got off to a rocky start, when in the mid-1970s, the Federal Trade Commission proposed defining natural foods as any “with no artificial ingredients and only minimal processing,” according to Quartz.
That regulation was ditched in 1983 because there were just too many foods to consider. But in 1991, the FDA decided to ask the public for “comments.” Two years later, after assessing the comments, they came to the conclusion there was a lot of public interest in “natural food,” but no one had suggested any way of determining what constituted a “natural” food.
So for years, the term was applied on a “case-by-case basis,” which can slow down the approval process, or even worse, lead to mistakes. By 2008, the FDA “considered the term “natural” to mean that “nothing artificial or synthetic (including all color additives regardless of source) has been included in or has been added to, a food that would not normally be expected to be in that food.”
Defining what is really natural — What is allowed?
Keep in mind the FDA, in the standards it uses now, does not extend its current policy to include the use of pesticides, nor are processing or production methods taken into consideration, like thermal technologies, pasteurization, or irradiation. So you can see how the “case-by-case basis” came about.
Specifically, the FDA asks for information and public comment on questions such as:
1. Whether it is appropriate to define the term “natural,”
2. If so, how the agency should define “natural,” and
3. How the agency should determine appropriate use of the term on food labels.
So take into consideration how you would define a “natural” food. Does the term mean no pesticides, no genetic engineering and no artificial coloring or unknown additives or preservatives have been incorporated into the food? In the case of meats, was the animal “factory raised?” Remember that “natural may mean different things to different people.
How to Comment
To comment on the term “natural” on food labeling:
For electronic submissions, go HERE.
For submissions by mail, use the following address: (Be sure to include docket number FDA-2014-N-1207 on each page of your written comments). Mail to:
Division of Dockets Management
HFA-305
Food and Drug Administration
5630 Fishers Lane, Room 1061
Rockville, MD 20852
The comment period closes February 10, 2016.
