Blumenthal: Finding real “natural” food is like “playing Russian Roulette.”
Under current regulations, a cheese labelled “natural” could have cellulose in it extracted from ground-up wood, to make the substance stick together.
U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro of New Haven unleashed this fun fact at a press conference Tuesday morning at Edge of the Woods grocery on Whalley Avenue to explain why she is calling for stricter regulations on how manufacturers can use the words “natural” and “healthy” on their food labels.
She and Connecticut U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, another sponsor of the proposal, argue the current labels are being used to deceive consumers into buying food they think is better for them — when often it is not.
The word “natural” should indicate no artificial ingredients, no toxic pesticides, and no additives in the food, DeLauro said.
More than two-thirds of people think natural food labels are more meaningful than they are, and more than half think they are independently verified, she said. In reality, nothing is verified or regulated about the use of the term when it comes to food, she said.
Food companies are picking up on the fact that they can make money by using the label. About the cheese with cellulose powder, she said, “It doesn’t sound like natural to me.”
Nussbaum, DeLauro at Edge of the Woods.
DeLauro and Blumenthal are calling for the FDA to release a final definition of the word “natural” in food, and ask that the designation appear at the front of the product and on the information panel.
The Food and Drug Administration developed a new nutrition label to take effect use this summer. It will include the servings in larger, bolder type, calories in larger type, the amount of total sugar that was added to the product, and serving sizes in cups as well as grams.
“It’s a positive step, but we need to do more,” DeLauro said. A decision on her proposal is expected within the next few months.
Blumenthal said interpreting the word “natural” is like playing “Russian Roulette,” since it can mean “a thousand things on a thousand different labels.”
That does a “disservice to the good guys in this industry,” he said. Blumenthal held up a package of “Sea Crunchy” seaweed snacks, which claimed it was “100 percent natural,” without MSG or preservatives. “This package is pure seaweed, but many others with that term may have a completely different use,” he said.
He called for a “comprehensive approach to all labeling that appears on food products.”
Ilisa Nussbaum, a pediatric dietician at Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital, joined the politicians to give a more clinical representation of the changes. The new label replaces Vitamin A and C with Vitamin D and potassium, in order to best represent what the average American is missing from his or her diet.
It also de-emphasizes fat, since the focus on fat “criminalized things like the avocado,” which is healthy.
“People have to begin to think about what it is they are consuming,” she said.