CBS News -- Organic. Reduced Sodium. 100% Whole Grain. These are real labels with standards set by the FDA. But Healthy, Premium and Natural are all used by companies to market their product and they don't mean anything specific.
The word Natural is part of a new lawsuit against LaCroix. The lawsuit claims "testing revealed a number of artificial ingredients."
LaCroix's parent company denies the allegations saying, "all of our ingredients are certified as natural."
But the folks at the Organic Consumer's Association content the term "Natural" is virtually meaningless. Katherine Paul adds,” There is no FDA or USDA definition, there are no regulations governing the term all natural.”
While they're not involved in the LaCroix lawsuit the association has sued other companies for misleading natural advertising… noting that consumer assign a meaning to the word natural. In fact, when asked what they thought the term natural means, the responses were: “not artificial, it has not been adulterated by some man made chemical and natural means it kinda the actual fruit essence.”
Consumer Reports found 81% of consumer think it should mean no artificial ingredients were used. But Charlotte Vallaeys of Consumer Reports says that's rarely the case and points to the words “natural flavoring” on back of the LaCroix can. “Just because something is artificial, doesn't mean it's harmful and vice versa, just because something is natural doesn't mean it's safe.”
Consumer Reports is pushing for the FDA to regulate and define the word Natural.