Monica Buck
If you are what you eat, then it pays to know yourself a little better.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture regulates the use of the term organic on food labels, with four categories based on the percentage of a food’s organic content — 100, 95, 70, and less than 70 percent.The term natural is regulated (by the Food and Drug Administration and the USDA, respectively) only when it refers to flavorings or meat
and poultry. A natural flavoring is one that
is derived from plant or animal matter, while natural meat and poultry products must contain no artificial ingredients and undergo minimal processing. This label is unregulated for other foods, so “all natural” on a cereal box, for example, means little.Some milk producers used to slap “hormone-free” labels on their bottles until the FDA’s ban on such claims.
All milk contains natural hormones, though milk from cows that weren’t given added hormones may be labeled as such.The FDA does not regulate the “No GMO” (no genetically modified organisms) labels that are added to certain products, such as soy and corn.
