Are consumers becoming more savvy when it comes to the use of certain unregulated terms, despite the ongoing fight against the use of GMOs in processed food and the way it is identified on packaging? Calling something “natural” is not a minor decision, and there have been an increasing number of cases centering around the potential deception caused left by this term.
In an Agence France-Presse piece on this subject, Theresa Eisenman, a representative from the FDA, explained that though there’s no official definition of this term the organization maintains a fairly clear set of standards around it.
“The FDA considers 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 the food,” she said.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to have made things very clear for food companies or consumers, as the same article alleges that most Americans only believe such claims “some of the time.”
Information presented by the Shelton Group, an advertising agency, claims that nearly 70 percent of American shoppers want “natural” products. But when there’s no agreement over what that means, and new lawsuits over the confusion pop up all the time, how successful can your food labels really be?
Labels for natural foods seem to be so much easier for consumers to grasp in theory than in practice. Your company can take on the mantle of coordinating and deploying these kinds of important labels yourself by investing in printing solutions soon.
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