The world of food labels is a confusing one — natural, organic, non-GMO, sugar-free, and clean are just a few. In addition, a laundry list of ingredients on the back of packaged foods may cause a bit of unease about what you are consuming, and rightfully so. In an ideal world, we’d trust the claims on the front of every package, but unfortunately, it’s still the Wild West for manufacturers and their attempts to target consumers. And as the popularity and demand for these healthy labels grow, the umbrella of interpretations they encompass seems to as well, per [International Food Information Service, or] IFIS.
While the label “clean” means nothing, many brands may use it to signify the product is less processed than typical, but it’s important to remember this is not guaranteed nor regulated. The good news is the demand for a clean label is growing, and the market is forecasted to reach close to $65 billion by 2026. Perhaps this means that in the future, there will be a label to delineate between ultra- and less-processed food, but for now? Clean may as well mean the package was wiped off with a cloth. It offers absolutely no insight into the contents of the food.
