Consumer Reports announced a campaign today to bar the use of the word “natural” on food products. There is no way at present to verify “natural” and Consumer Reports say its nationwide poll shows shoppers say that to be “natural” product, a product cannot be geneticially engineered, cannot contain artificial ingredients and should be produced without antibiotics. “We truly don’t believe there is a way to define it that will meet all of consumers’ expectations,” said Urvashi Rangan, executive director of CR’s Food Safety and Sustainability Center.
The campaign to ban “natural” is a partnership of Consumer Reports and TakePart, a social media platform. The nationwide poll commissioned by CR found that 59 percent of shoppers look to see if a product is “natural” and a majority of people believe that is a product is natural, it carries specific benefits. The poll also showed nine out of 10 people say genetically engineered food should be labeled and that genetically engineered salmon should be labeled.