Absolutely nothin’!  I used to think to myself, “Oh, good.  This product says ‘All Natural’. That must mean all the contents of this package have to be good for me.”  What I’ve found during one of my recent digging sessions has made me see otherwise.

According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, food with this label “does not contain added color, artificial flavors, or synthetic substances.”  A quick scan of farmaid.org will lead one to find there is no yardstick by which a product is measured to be labeled “all natural”. This means your product could contain antibiotics, growth hormones, high fructose corn syrup, and genetically modified ingredients among other undesirable substances.  For example in the case of meat, “all natural” only means nothing artificial was added once the meat was removed from the animal, but it has nothing to do with how the animal was raised.

Technically “all natural” is not a standardized label like USDA Organic or Verified Non-GMO so much as it’s a marketing tactic.  A manufacturer needs to jump through a far lesser number of hoops to label their product as “natural” than those who have the privilege of being able to use the “organic” label.  The definition of other labels can be called into question as well.  Among these are “free range”, “no nitrates”, and “made with real fruit”.

It’s not wrong to buy these products, and certainly just because a product bears this labels doesn’t mean it’s not a decent product.  Just always be sure to read the ingredient label on the back of your products and be confident you know exactly what’s in the product you’re buying.

Sources

http://www.fda.gov/aboutfda/transparency/basics/ucm214868.htm

http://www.nutrition.org/asn-blog/2013/02/interpreting-food-labels-natural-versus-organic/

http://www.farmaid.org/site/c.qlI5IhNVJsE/b.2723725/k.8DCF/Food_Labeling.htm

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/what-does-natural-really-mean-on-food-labels/