Food Labeling

Understanding labels on food can be difficult. Have you ever wondered if ‘All Natural’ really means all natural, or have you wondered what exactly ‘ORGANIC’ means, or if anyone enforce these labels? Here are some guidelines to help you navigate the sea of labels on everything from bell peppers to barbecue sauce.

Natural

• The word natural on a food product doesn’t hold much weight. It’s become a hackneyed descriptor on everything from chips to soft drinks. There is no federal standard for what constitutes natural.

Organic

• A green-and-white USDA ORGANIC label on a food item is an indication that the item is at least 95 percent organic. Not only has the product been grown according to government standards, but the grower has also been inspected by an outside auditor and received a passing grade for compliance with the strict standards detailed by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

• An item with a label that reads MADE WITH ORGANIC INGREDIENTS indicates that at least 74 percent of the ingredients are organic.

GMO

• If a product is labeled GMO [Genetically Modified Organism] FREE or GE [Genetically Engineered] FREE, then ostensibly the product has not been genetically manipulated. However, there is no certifying body for this label.

Dairy

• A dairy product with the label HORMONE-FREE indicates that it does not contain synthetic hormones. The USDA enforces that dairy products with the USDA ORGANIC seal are free of any synthetic version of recombinant bovine growth hormones.

Meat

• The label NO ADDED HORMONES, NO HORMONES ADMINISTERED, or ANTIBIOTIC FREE on beef indicates that neither synthetic hormones nor subtherapeutic levels of antibiotics have been given to the animals. (Factory farmers will often inject their cattle with growth hormones to make them grow faster.)

• In the United States, it is not legal to inject poultry or pork with hormones, so any hormone labeling is meaningless on these types of meat.