Read What You Eat

The Food and Drug Administration recently warned Alexia Foods about misleading food labels. Most of the Alexia Food products have "All Natural" on the front of the package right above their name. As it turns out, however, not everything they produce is as natural as it claims to be.

For instance, their Roasted Red Potatoes and Baby Portabella Mushrooms contain disodium dihydrogen pyrophosphate (DDP), a synthetic chemical preservative. This product was deemed misbranded by the FDA under legislation that states a food is misbranded if its labeling is false or misleading. The DDP in this product is used to keep cut potatoes from turning brown due to oxidation. DDP can also be used as buffer, leaven, quality modifier, ferment agent, emulsifier, nutriment, and adhesive in foods.


Image taken from: http://mywoodenspoon.com/

While doing some research I came across another product that contained DDP. Once again the product contained potatoes. The FDA noted that the product in their initial warning might not be the only offender in Alexia's product line and suggested they ensure other products are not misbranded as well.

Currently, the FDA does not a formal definition of what is considered 'natural.' The FDA considers use of the term 'natural' on a food label to be non-misleading when nothing artificial or synthetic has been included in, or added to, a food that would not normally be expected to be in the food.

The FDA typically has definitions for the terms commonly seen on food labels. For instance take the term 'fresh.' 'Fresh' can be used on a label to suggest that a food is unprocessed or in a raw state, that has never been frozen, nor has it underwent any thermal processing or form of preservation.

You may have encountered labels that have 'fresh frozen' or 'frozen fresh' on them. This means that the food was gathered and quickly frozen, all the way to the center of the food, by the use of freezing system in order that no deterioration of the food could have taken place between harvest and freezing. In this case, blanching the food is considered okay prior to freezing. Other foods that can have the label 'fresh' include the addition of waxes and coatings, post-harvest approved pesticides, or foods that have been treated with a ionizing radiation (that does not exceed a specific dose).

The specific definition for 'fresh' was created in 1993. It is likely that this definition was created during a time when consumers were putting down canned vegetables and opting for the produce section instead. With the ever growing trend of consumers wanting to purchase 'all natural' products, it is the likely the FDA will have to create a formal definition for 'natural' in the near future.

Alexia Foods has 15 business days to respond to the FDA with the actions they will take to correct this problem.

A link to the actual warning letter sent to Alexia Foods can be found here.