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Many Products Mislead Consumers on Organic Ingredient Contents

Posted on: Tuesday, 1 August 2006, 03:00 CDT

By Barry Shlachter

FORT WORTH, Texas - Stumped over what's "natural" food?

You're not alone.

Jana Morgan considers herself a careful shopper who was somewhat stumped when asked whether she considered high-fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated vegetable oil - respectively, a sweetener and a fat widely used by food manufacturers - to be "natural."

"I am not really sure. I know 'organic,'" said Ms. Morgan, who operates a UPS Store in Fort Worth with her husband. "My assumption is that a lot of processed food will not be purely natural."

The U.S. Department of Agriculture clearly defines "natural" when applied to labeling meat and poultry: no artificial or synthetic ingredients, including added hormones, and minimally processed.

The Food and Drug Administration, however, says it has no plans to do likewise for the 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 "100 percent 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 high-fructose corn syrup nor hydrogenated vegetable oil, whose trans fatty acids are created in an industrial process.

Whole Foods stores, 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 percent natural cereal," that contains partially hydrogenated cottonseed and soybean oil. None of its natural-category products includes 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.

The newly reformulated "100 percent natural" 7UP also uses the 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.

Though high-fructose corn syrup has detractors, scientists have not determined whether it's any less healthful than other sweeteners, says Marion Nestle, a New York University nutritionist and author of What to Eat.

Though consumer groups argue that calling the sweetener "natural" misleads the public, manufacturers say 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 "non- informative." Late last month, however, 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 nonmisleading manner and when the food does not contain "added color, artificial flavors or synthetic substances."

"The loophole," said Mr. Rangan, of Consumer Reports, "is that they don't define synthetic."

Food and beverage processors use high-fructose corn syrup because it is cheaper than sugar. Cost also is 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 an ingredient's molecular structure is not fundamentally altered.

General Mills uses high-fructose corn syrup in its Nature Valley Brand "100 percent natural" Crunchy Granola Bars. 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."

The Sugar Association argues that no matter how you do it, the molecular structure is irreversibly changed and consumers would grasp that it's no longer a natural ingredient if they were told as such.

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 but also 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. "High-fructose 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.

Spokesman Chris 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."

Source: Augusta Chronicle, The

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