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Behind The Grocery Store Label: "All Natural," "Pasture Finished," And Other Misleading Terms

Greg West |
May 16, 2013 | 6:32 p.m. PDT

Contributor

 

What's the difference between a cow that's pasture finished and a cow that's grass fed?
What's the difference between a cow that's pasture finished and a cow that's grass fed?
While not nearly as deadly as the icy-plains where neanderthals hunted wooly mammoths and evaded saber-toothed cats, the grocery store can still be a confusing place for many modern shoppers. 

Today, as they walk down the grocery aisle to buy our food, they will see that almost every product has a label advertising some number of health benefits, like "our product is pasture finished," "grass fed" or "all-natural." However, many consumers have no idea what many of these terms even mean. 

Some shoppers, like Gwen Howard, who shops at Ralphs grocery store on the weekends in South Central Los Angeles, assume that when a product advertises zero calories, it means that there are actually zero total calories in the product.

“I usually pick up Coke Zero for my kids,” Howard said, “and because I’m trying to lose a little bit of weight for my husband.”

However, according to FDA guidelines, the zero calorie label actually means that there are less than five calories per RACC (Reference Amount Customarily Consumed) and per labeled serving. 

While certain consumers, like Howard, are attempting to use diet and zero calorie drinks to lose weight, studies done at the School of Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio indicate that people who drink diet and zero calorie drinks are actually gaining more weight than regular soda drinkers.

Researchers are also finding links that the artificial sweeteners in these drinks may cause cravings in the brain and have, in some cases, been linked to higher risks of cancer and blood glucose levels, which can lead to diabetes and to the production of more body fat as the liver overcompensates, according to reports from the National Cancer Institute.

“We’re not responsible for how consumers interpret labels if they haven’t been educated on what our nutrition guidelines actually mean,” explained Jalil Isa, a spokesperson for the FDA’s nutrition labeling practices, “we don’t intend for them to be confusing.”

During a University of Southern California student survey of local grocery store shoppers, more than three-fourths of the people interviewed did not know the differences between "organic" and "natural" products and what is responsible for evaluating them. 

Rather than being regulated by the FDA, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) regulates foods that claim to be ‘organic’ or ‘natural’. 

According to the USDA’s Food Standards and Labeling Book, "organic" means that the food was either grown or raised without chemicals, fertilizers, insecticides, animal byproducts, modified feed, or growth hormones.

When a producer puts a "natural" or "all natural" label on their product, it only means that the product does not include artificial or synthetic materials. This can confuse shoppers who think that ‘natural’ has the same meaning as "organic."

Yet, some activists like Eden Foods founder Michael Potter are saying that these regulations are changing, according to his recent podcast,

“There are at least two agro-company executives on the [USDA] board right now,” he said, “Families think there’s economic justice built into the price. When they find out otherwise, they lose confidence in the system.”

For example, Potter explains that the USDA board previously approved the use of Chilean nitrate to grow organic foods. 

While Chilean nitrate is a naturally occurring substance, Potter says that it has the same effect on crops as synthetic fertilizers, which degrade the quality of the soil overtime. 

Potter elaborates that pushing through conditions intended to bolster production, like using Chilean nitrate to grow crops, may set a dangerous precedent and degrade future USDA labeling principles. 

Potter says that he believes that his organic standards are far higher than those of the USDA. For that reason, Eden Foods chooses not to use the "organic" seal on its products or marketing materials.

Other USDA labels like "pasture finished" and "grass fed" are also confusing some grocery shoppers.

Pasture finished and grass fed labels usually show up on meat products, more often on beef products. Kobe Beef from Japan is considered in the highest echelon of grass fed meats.

According to USDA standards, pasture finished means that a producer can feed his animals grain as long as they have access to a pasture. The grass fed label lets consumers know that the animal they are eating had access to a grass pasture during its life and received the majority of its nutrients from grass.

Unfortunately, the pasture-finished label only means that the animals had access to a grass pasture, a gate opening from the feedlot to a ‘small’ pasture qualifies as pasture finished. In many cases, the cows rarely prefer to eat grass to the much sweeter oats and grain, according the documentary Food Inc. 

Similarly, grass-fed animals do not have to be fed grass from beginning to end. There are also no restrictions on the use of growth hormones, modified feed or antibiotics. The program is also voluntary, so producers are allowed to use the ‘grass fed’ label without verification. 

“Top agro-officials shouldn’t have a part in controlling how our food is regulated and labeled,” Porter declares.

Porter explains that as labeling practices become more-and-more opaque, consumers will continue to lose faith in how the government standardizes ourfood. 

These days, with so many products on the market, it is hard for the FDA and the USDA to regulate all the claims made by various producers, according to Jalil Isa. While many of these labels are regulated, many more are not. 

“There are literally thousands of products to go through,” explains Isa, “We can’t possibly regulate all the labels that companies put on their food.”

As a result, companies are free to put labels like, "heart healthy," "liver strengthening," and "mood-enhancer" on their products with little or no supporting research.

While survival in today’s food marketplace is less dangerous then 10,000 B.C,, at least cavemen knew exactly what they were eating. 

Reach Greg West here.


 

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