Ben & Jerry's dropping 'All Natural' label

Sunday, October 17, 2010 by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer
Tags: ice cream, all natural, health news

(NaturalNews) Specialty ice cream maker Ben & Jerry's has decided to drop the "All Natural" label from its entire line of ice cream products after pressure from consumer groups and the public about the company's use of unnatural ingredients. Ben & Jerry's, which is now owned by Unilever, uses ingredients like corn syrup and maltodextrin that together constitute at least 90 percent of the product, a fact that many say renders it nearly "All Unnatural".

The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has been calling out Ben & Jerry's for what it says is deceptive labeling since 2002, citing the fact that ingredients like alkalized cocoa and partially hydrogenated soybean oil -- two ingredients found in many varieties of Ben & Jerry's ice cream -- are not natural.

"[T]hese ingredients come from the factory, not the farm," Michael F. Jacobson, executive director of CSPI, is cited as saying in an earlier NaturalNews.com report.
https://www.naturalnews.com/029520_natural_ic...

In response, Unilever finally caved and did the right thing by dropping the label from its products. However a recent company press release indicates that Unilever still believes its Ben & Jerry's products are natural, and that those who disagree are being unreasonable.

"Ben & Jerry's has based its use of the term "all natural" on guidelines issued by the FDA, which reflect how reasonable consumers would understand that term," the release states.

So according to Ben & Jerry's, oil extracted from genetically-modified soybeans using chemical hexane, and that has been artificially processed into a solid-state trans-fat, is an ingredient that reasonable consumers -- and the FDA -- consider natural.

Any reasonable scientist, however, is sure to disagree, as is anyone else with the least bit of common sense.

Sources for this story include:

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2010/09/28/ben...

http://www.benjerry.com/company/media-center...