The US Agriculture Department will hold a public meeting on December 12 to consider a petition from Hormel Foods Corp that asked the agency to establish more stringent guidelines for the word "natural" used on many food product labels.
Steven Cohen, a spokesman with the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service, said the agency wanted to receive public comment on the current use of the word "natural" on meat and poultry labels and solicit comment on what changes should be made to the rule. "We want to make sure the terms (for what is natural) are easily understandable," said Cohen.
The current rule was written in 1982, and according to Hormel, changes last year have created inconsistency and confusion over what foods can be labelled natural.
In its petition to USDA, Hormel said a product should be declared natural only if it does not contain artificial flavourings, colourings, have other synthetic ingredients or preservatives and is not more than minimally processed.
But the current rule has "inconsistent guidance which may provide loopholes that would allow manufacturers to manipulate exceptions in the policy to confuse consumers and erode the meaning of the Natural label," the company said it its letter to USDA.
Hormel noted, for example, the current natural measure allows sodium lactate from a corn source to be counted as "all natural." It also said the use of an ingredient that has been more than minimally processed in a product would not necessarily exclude the final item from being promoted as natural.
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