Alkalized cocoa, corn syrup and artificial vanilla. They’re safe to eat, but are they natural?
On Monday, Ben & Jerry’s, the Vermont ice cream brand that is synonymous with funky flavors and environmentally and socially responsible behavior, agreed to phase out its use of “All Natural” claims on ice creams and frozen yogurts that contain processed or artificial ingredients.
The move comes a month after a Washington-based public health watchdog, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, sent a letter to Ben & Jerry’s parent company, Unilever. The letter identified nearly 50 products that it claimed were improperly labeled: Thirty-six flavors including Cherry Garcia, a celebrated mix of fudge and cherries named for Grateful Dead band leader Jerry Garcia, contained cocoa processed with alkali, which cuts acidity, and nutrition-boosting flavanols. Others, such as the Crhme Brulee flavor, included malodextrin, a sweetener produced from corn starch, and corn syrup.
“We are confident that Ben & Jerry’s products are ’All Natural’ as reasonable consumers would understand that term. However we don’t want there to be any questions,” Jostein Solheim, the company’s chief executive, wrote in a letter to CSPI. He added that the company intended to focus on communicating its current core values such as buying milk from family farms that do not use growth hormones and certified cage-free eggs.
Technically, Ben & Jerry’s is not forbidden from using the words all-natural. The Food and Drug Administration, which regulates its products, does not have a definition for the term. A spokesman, Siobhan DeLancey, said the agency does not object to the term on food labels provided it is used in a manner that is truthful and not misleading and the product does not contain added color, artificial flavors or synthetic substances.
Read tomorrow's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.
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