Natural labeling in foods: In meaning nearly anything, it effectually means nothing.

For Decades now, the word Natural has been so widely and frivolously thrown around by food companies that renders its use completely hollow.

At its core, ‘natural’ means something that occurs in nature, in contrast to something that does not. However, as is evident when we walk into supermarkets today, pretty much all food combines elements from nature and hand made elements (unnatural foods), rendering the spectrum of the word widely applicable.

The onus of defining the word natural has fallen on the customers. They are the ones that are hard pressed to define the fine line between natural and artificial. What makes decisions tough is the fact that the word natural is not very regulated by authorities. ‘Made with natural flavour’ is slapped on countless cereal boxes, bottled beverages and even candy wrappers today which contain artificial sweeteners, trans fat and genetically modified protein. The fact is that natural flavor has nothing to do with being ‘good for you’. To be naturally flavoured today doesn’t even preclude something from also being artificially flavored.
An example of this is: Food engineers can now create a “natural” mature cheese flavoring by blending young, immature cheese with enzymes (lipases or proteases) that intensify the cheese flavor until it reaches “maturity” – within 24 to 72 hours.

2017 FOOD & HEALTH SURVEY

According to the Food Insights survey, consumers tend to equate the word ‘natural’ with something that is ‘good for you’ and something that has more positives than negatives (obviously limited to the labeling). About 8 in 10 people find conflicting advice about what to eat or avoid. This equation of consumers with the word ‘natural’ has been widely misused in advertising, despite the fact that is something is ‘natural’ or not has little to nothing to do with being ‘good for you’.

 

2017 FOOD & HEALTH SURVEY

How we define the word Natural

Elven Agri is food ingredients manufacturer and brand owner that defines the word natural as something that occurs in nature. We believe that the use of the word “natural” should be restricted to protect consumers from being sold false benefits.

We dry most of our ingredients (some do not need any drying) in low temperatures (temperatures never exceeding 45 degrees) to make the natural food easy for consumption. All our products are single ingredient only, which means that we do not add any preservatives, color or anything artificial or ‘natural’ (as broad as that term has now become) to the single ingredient mentioned on the label.