Two-thirds of Americans think the world “natural” on the label of a packaged or processed food means it contains no artificial ingredients, pesticides or genetically engineered organisms, a survey released this week by the magazine Consumer Reports found.
When consumers see the word on meat or poultry, 70% think it means no growth hormones were used in the animals feed and 60% think the animals got no antibiotics or other drugs in their feed.
The problem is, consumers are wrong.
Under federal labeling rules, the word natural means absolutely nothing.