food

CSPI Takes On Ben & Jerry's 'All Natural' Claim

Ben-Jerr

Nonprofit health advocacy group The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) is now targeting the "all natural" claim made on the label of some Ben & Jerry's ice cream products.

CSPI sent a letter to Paul Polman, CEO of B&J parent company Unilever, urging the company to drop the brand's claim, or the organization will "take its concerns to the Food and Drug Administration and state attorneys general."

CSPI says that at least 48 out of 53 B&J flavors of ice cream and frozen yogurt bearing the "all natural" claim contain alkalized coca, corn syrup, partially hydrogenated soybean oil and other ingredients that "either don't exist in nature, or have been chemically modified."

"These ingredients are safe -- only a small amount of partially hydrogenated oil is used -- but it's a stretch to call any of them 'natural,'" said CSPI executive director Michael F. Jacobson.

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The FDA does not have a formal definition for the word "natural," but previous statements from the agency have consistently discouraged the use of the term because its ambiguity may mislead consumers. One FDA communication indicated that "natural" should be taken to mean "that nothing artificial or synthetic" has been included or added to a food product, according to CSPI.

The organization first approached Ben & Jerry's and the FDA about the all-natural claim in 2002, but neither took action, and "the problem only seems to have gotten worse," CSPI reports.

Ben & Jerry's did not reply to a Marketing Daily request for response.

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