01.Introduction
We've looked at more than 200 products whose brand names imply naturalness or healthiness, and found the ingredients in many of them don’t live up to the promise.
For many shoppers,
anything that promises
to be nutritious is far more
likely to find its way into
your shopping trolley than something
that’s not. Sure enough, supermarkets
adorn their shelves with “healthy”,
“fresh” and “natural” items.
On the
surface, these types of product may
appear to be the next best thing to
visiting the farm gate or growing
your own organically. But beyond
the packaging, the story is often
very different.
Although the Australian Consumer Law and Food Standards Code aim to protect
shoppers against misleading
advertising, many of these brands
rely on trademarks – commonly
used to protect intellectual property
rights and distinguish specific products
from others in the marketplace – to push unsubstantiated nutrition and health
implications.
Should a product be allowed
to be sold as “natural” when it includes
preservatives, or be marketed as “healthy”
when it has lots of added sugar?
For more information about nutritional labelling, please see our Food labelling and advertising section.
Examples
Connotations of “natural” are attached to
many products – from All Natural to Be
Natural, Go Natural to Nice & Natural
– by virtue of their trademarked brand
names. According to The George Institute, its database has close to 1300
products and brands that use the word
“natural” in their product name or
package marketing – but the ingredients
may not necessarily reflect this.
For
example, some contain additives such
as preservatives, and although others
may be technically “natural”, they
can also be laden with sodium and
saturated fats. Nutritional data from The George Institute on five of the All Natural Bakery Bars indicate they’re all high in saturated fats and sugars.
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| The Natural Cordial Company’s lime cordial contains a sulphite preservative. |
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Nice & Natural Nut and Yoghurt Muesli Bars contain a “yoghurt-flavoured compound” and the popular soy-based emulsifier lecithin. |
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| Mother Earth Baked Oaty Slices spruik their lack of artificial colours, as well as being a high source of fibre and wholegrain cereals, but they’re also high in saturated fat. |
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While the newly trademarked Natural Chip Company’s sea salt chips are free of chemical additives, the honey soy chicken flavour contains a number of processed ingredients, such as maltodextrin and the colour caramel 1. And both chip flavours are high in saturated fat as they’re cooked in palm oil, but the label lists this as “vegetable oil”.
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| Available in health food shops, the Loving Earth Organic Activated Almond & Purple Corn Raw Dark Chocolate Bar is 25% saturated fat; CHOICE considers any food containing more than five per cent to be high in saturated fat. |
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