Food for Thought: Food Certification Labels

Many foods labeled natural can actually contain artificial ingredients or unhealthy additives. Sherlock Holmes himself would’ve needed to apply a great deal of time and effort to understand all the mysteries of green food labels. Greenerchoices.org has an incredibly innovative system to search by product (food, personal hygiene, cleaning products or paper products) to discover the composition and purpose of ingredients in the product label. Check out their eco-labels center along with their virtual kitchen to learn more about greener options.

Here are the most common eco-focused food labels and their meanings:

• USDA Organic-Products can only contain organically produced ingredients.
• Organic-95% of the Ingredients must be organically grown.
• Made with Organic-Up to 3 organically grown ingredients must be displayed on the front panel of the product but not as a part of the product description.
• Ingredients (Organic)-Organic ingredients are allowed to be included in the ingredient list but not on the front panel of the product.
• Sustainable Farming Labels-Farming that utilizes sustainable practices and rotate crops and animals to enrich the soil and help prevent disease and pest outbreaks; chemical pesticides are often not used at all.
• USDA Certified Organic-The Organic Foods Production Act (OFPA) and the National Organic Program (NOP) regulate consumers’ organic agricultural product purchases. They ensure that the goods are produced, processed, and certified to consistent national organic standards. The labeling requirements of the NOP also apply to raw, fresh products and processed products that contain organic agricultural ingredients.
• Grass-Fed-Grass fed beef is more nutritious, more humane, less wasteful and even better tasting. Grass fed beef is lower in fat an calories, rich in CLA (conjugated linoleic acid-which reduces the risk of cancer and obesity), high in Omega 3’s and high in Vitamin E. The Standard states that grass or forage shall be the feed source for the lifetime of the ruminant animal, with the exception of milk.
• Soil Certification Limited-Founded by a group of scientists, farmers and nutritionists, the Soil Association is the UK’s leading organic organization and aim to promote and certify strict organic standards related to food, farming and product-manufacturing processes. They certify over 80% of organic food sold in the UK.
• Cage-free-Birds are supposed to be raised without cages but not necessarily outdoors, this is not always the case and there is not a limit to the numbers. Certified Humane labels is the only way to be sure these birds are without cages and allowed to perform natural behaviors.
• Free-range-Animals that go outdoors and engage in natural behaviors.
• No hormones-Animals raised without supplemental growth hormones.
• Antibiotic-free-No antibiotics were administered to the animal during its lifetime to neither treat nor prevent disease.

Cleary, there are a multitude of choices in buying, wearing and eating eco-considerate products; the best thing to do is to commit to researching and investigating labels that are unfamiliar and make a habit of checking products for their stamps, seals and certifications. As they say, it ain’t easy being green, but its well worth it for your body, mind and the health of the planet.