What do "Natural" and "Organic" really mean?

If you go by the dictionary (thank you, Merriem-Webster Online) the word 'natural' means this: – “existing in or produced by nature: not artificial.” But "natural" has a lot of room for creative license. When you see the word "all natural" on food packaging, does that mean all the ingredients were added in a form relatively close to what one might actually find in nature (i.e. a fruit & nut bar that contains oats, sunflower seeds, peanuts, dates, raisins and honey) or does it mean that all ingredients occur naturally in some form or another and nothing in the food product is a synthetic compound manufactured in a lab? Does it mean nothing is processed? Or does it mean that things that are processed were processed using other ingredients or compounds found in nature?

The truth is that the word 'natural' in the world of food packaging and marketing really has no meaning at all. A term only has meaning if there are prescribed standards a product has to meet in order to be touted as "natural," and in this case there are no such standards.

According to the FDA’s website, “The term “natural” has not been defined in FDA’s law…or in FDA’s regulations.” Which basically means that the term “natural” doesn’t really mean anything – it’s totally subjective and determined by the manufacturer/packager and marketing department. Theoretically any beef could be called “100% natural beef” because it came from an actual cow instead of synthetic compounds molded to look like meat. So buyer beware when “natural” is the buzzword. It's no replacement for reading the nutritional information and knowing what those unpronounceable ingredients are and how they're made. Natural and Organic are also not interchangeable terms.

Thankfully "Organic" is a different story. There are very clear and specific criteria a product and its manufacturer have to meet in order to bear the round green & white USDA Organic seal, and usage of the term on product packaging has been regulated by the FDA since 2001. The complete regulations are available on the USDA website, but here are the highlights:

1. Products labeled as "100% Organic" can ONLY contain organically produced ingredients, with the exception of water and salt. (Those labeled simply as "organic" must have 95% organic ingredients.)
2. Products that say they are "made with organic ingredients" must have 70% organic ingredients. If a product is less than 70% organic, the word "organic" may not be used anywhere on the packaging.
3. All organic ingredients have to be identified as such in the nutrition information, i.e. Ingredients: Organic evaporated cane juice, organic cold-pressed olive oil, etc.
4. Use of genetic engineering, ionizing radiation, or sewage sludge in the production of organic products is prohibited.
5. Organically raised animals may not be given growth hormones or antibiotics. (They are, however, allowed to give the animals vaccines.)
6. Animals treated with a prohibited medication for an illness or injury may not be sold as organic.
7. There is a "National List of Allowed Synthetic and Prohibited Non-Synthetic Substances" which producers of organic products must adhere to. That list is available here. Certain herbicides and pesticides are permitted in specific situations under strict specifications. The importance of prohibiting certain non-synthetics in Organic products is that nature has a nasty little arsenal of harmful substances herself, including arsenic, lead salts, and strychnine; none of which you want in your food, and thankfully the USDA agrees.

The bottom line is that you will never know exactly what is in what you're eating unless you grew or raised it yourself, but products labeled as "Organic" can certainly give you some assurances over non-organic products that what you are putting in or on your body is less likely to contain harmful ingredients. It may not be straight off the vine in the Garden of Eden, but at least you can be assured it hasn't been genetically altered or drenched in rotenone.