It may well be past time for ingredient declaration standards to be agreed-upon between manufacturers and consumers before the food industry becomes mired in lawsuits and wasted developments. For all of the push towards health and wellness trends—which consumers have now been demanding of the market for at least a decade—it does astound that the FDA has only this year asked for public comment on what the word “Natural” means on food labeling. In May of this year, the FDA opened the topic up for public comment and as of August 2016, more than 5,000 comments have been filed in response. Now, recall again how long consumers had to wait for the Nutrition Labeling changes to be implemented into the marketplace? If the designation of what constitutes “Natural” on our food labeling takes nearly as much time, it is fair to assume that resource spend within industry by those protecting themselves from lawsuit will dwarf the spend associated with Nutrition Label changes.

This much is certain: the domestic food industry’s largest manufacturers are being monitored more closely than ever in 2016. What is not certain is when R&D departments and manufacturers can feel 100% confident that what they are printing on their labels won’t end up landing them in court.

LINKS:

FDA.gov
“‘Natural’ on Food Labeling”

Consumerist.com
“Lawsuits Claim ‘100% Natural’ Label On Nature Valley Granola Bars is Deceptive”