Goodman Matthew J
Food Drug Law J. 2017;72(1):78-102.
Food branded with a Natural label can be found in any grocery store across the United States. Consumers consider this label to be an important attribute when making a purchasing decision and billions of dollars are spent annually on these products. While many consumers believe Natural foods are healthier, heavy reliance on that assumption is misguided as “Natural” has no formal legal definition—it’s merely defined pursuant to an FDA approved informal policy. Another important health attribute in a consumer’s purchasing decision is the presence of natural flavors in food. However, unlike the term Natural, FDA has promulgated legally binding regulations for natural flavors. These flavors are currently the fourth most common food ingredient listed on food labels. In reality, “natural flavors” are a far cry from what consumers might expect, as they can contain both artificial and synthetic chemicals (often used as processing aids). Nonetheless, without a legally binding Natural regulation, there has been little opportunity to contest the naturalness of natural flavors in the past. Recently, FDA has initiated a notification of request for comments on use of the term Natural, so an attempt to promulgate regulations may be underway. Thus, it is appropriate to consider where natural flavors will fall if binding regulations are set forth. This article looks at the Natural debate, its history, and model regulatory standards worth considering. Within that context, it also provides a critical discussion concerning a misunderstood, yet federally regulated, ingredient that our society so heavily consumes: natural flavors.
带有“天然”标签的食品在美国各地的杂货店都能找到。消费者在做购买决策时，会将这个标签视为一项重要属性，每年在这些产品上的花费高达数十亿美元。虽然许多消费者认为天然食品更健康，但过度依赖这一假设是错误的，因为“天然”并没有正式的法律定义——它只是根据美国食品药品监督管理局（FDA）批准的一项非正式政策来界定。消费者购买决策中的另一个重要健康属性是食品中是否含有天然香料。然而，与“天然”一词不同，FDA已经颁布了关于天然香料的具有法律约束力的法规。这些香料目前是食品标签上列出的第四大常见食品成分。实际上，“天然香料”与消费者的预期相差甚远，因为它们可能包含人工和合成化学物质（通常用作加工助剂）。尽管如此，由于没有具有法律约束力的“天然”法规，过去几乎没有机会对天然香料的天然性提出质疑。最近，FDA已启动一项关于征求对“天然”一词使用意见的通知，因此可能正在尝试颁布相关法规。因此，考虑如果制定具有约束力的法规，天然香料将处于何种地位是恰当的。本文探讨了关于“天然”的争论、其历史以及值得考虑的示范性监管标准。在此背景下，它还对一种我们社会大量消费但却被误解且受到联邦监管的成分——天然香料进行了批判性讨论。
