But you want to know what's NOT the way to go, Dean? Buying Silk organic soymilk, switching to cheaper, inorganic ingredients, slyly replacing the word "organic" with "natural" on the exact same packaging as before, charging almost exactly the same price, and keeping the newly inorganic product's barcode the same as the organic product's.
Changing to inorganic beans saved Dean 34-42%... and cost the unknowing consumer 34-42% more than it should have. And what does "all natural" mean anyways? Well, yeah, a soybean is all natural-- it sprouts up out of the dirt. But arsenic is natural, too! And we know that's not good for us. Organic is clear: it cannot be genetically modified, pesticides are not allowed, no artificial additives or flavors, etc. But the term "all natural," in contrast, is terribly fuzzy.
Dean made this change about a year ago, but most people never found out because they kept their switcheroo pretty quiet. "Grocers are irked that they weren't notified about the reformulation of the product," writes Tribune reported Julie Deardoff.
Target may or may not have noticed the sly switch-over; regardless, they continued to advertise Silk as organic, and are now undergoing a lawsuit for a "willful violation" of organic certification processes. (AP) Many other companies, including Whole Foods, continued to advertise the product as organic long after the switch. Dean claims they notified carriers, but something seems fishy.
Be careful when you buy "all natural" products. The market is still developing its definition of these foods and what makes them natural vs. organic. So read ingredient labels; don't just trust the way the product is marketed.
Food for thought: If you don't recognize the ingredients as food, maybe you shouldn't be eating them. . .
Posts
Very true! I try to stick to buying things that have REAL ingredients, as opposed to additives. I don't want to be wondering what disodium phosphate is doing in my food. The funny thing, though, is that "natural flavor" seems innocuous enough that we usually eat it anyway...
ReplyDeleteNatural flavors are, ironically, scary things most of the time. I also like to only eat things that only have ingredients I can identify as food! Why is that so crazy?
ReplyDelete