Is It ‘Natural’? Consumers and Lawyers Seek Clarity

Is It ‘Natural’? Consumers, and Lawyers, Want to Know<br />General Mills, which faced at least two federal lawsuits claiming<br />that its Nature Valley granola bars contained artificial ingredients, replaced labels that once read “100% Natural” to say they are “Made With 100% Natural Whole Grain Oats.”<br />Corporations, lawyers say, have been reluctant to allow a case to go to trial<br />and risk having a legal definition of “natural” emerge — which might set standards companies would have to meet.<br />In recent years, one bright spot in an otherwise lackluster market for packaged foods, beverages<br />and consumer products has been merchandise promoted as “natural.”<br />Consumers, increasingly wary of products that are overly processed or full of manufactured chemicals, are<br />paying premium prices for natural goods, from fruit juices and cereals to shampoos and baby wipes.<br />“We’re really getting into splitting hairs about what is natural<br />and what’s not,” said Maia Kats, the director of litigation for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a public advocacy group has been involved in a handful of lawsuits over so-called natural products.<br />A number of more recent cases involve allegations that products labeled natural were misleading<br />because they contained small amounts of materials linked to genetically modified organisms.<br />The new focus in litigation away from the ingredients in the food to the actual food chain — how the crop was grown or what the animals<br />were fed — may undermine the original goal of the lawsuits, which was addressing nutritional concerns, some experts say.