FDA Working to Define "Natural" and Redefine "Healthy"

2016 has been an active year for food regulations. From the implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act to the revision of the Nutrition and Supplement Facts Labels, the FDA has been finalizing rules meant to modernize and make our food supply safer, while also helping consumers stay informed and make healthier choices. While the FDA has not yet issued a final rule on the definitions of "natural" and "healthy," the recent request for public comments on the two terms is a promising step towards clarification of an often litigated claim ("natural") and an outdated FDA definition of "healthy."  Natural is the most commonly used claim on new U.S. food products--a $40 billion a year market. However, the FDA (unlike the USDA with respect to meat products[1]) has never formally defined parameters for use of the term on general (non-meat) food products.[2] Consumer preferences are behind the labeling trend, with sixty-two percent of surveyed consumers responding with a preference for a product labeled natural.[3] Historically, the FDA has provided a policy statement about the term natural, but has refused to define the term with an official rule.[4] The FDA's policy statement defines natural as no artificial or synthetic ingredients added to a food that would not normally be expected in the food item.[5] The agency's reluctance to provide an official rule defining natural has led to near constant private and class action litigation over natural claims on a variety of processed, multi-ingredient food products.[6] In response, a variety of consumer groups have relied on state consumer protection statutes to bring lawsuits for deceptive and misleading use of the term "natural" on various products.[7] The result of this ubiquitous litigation is a confusing, piecemeal, state-by-state construction of what may be labeled as a "natural" product--a result that is problematic for both producers and consumers