Claims – What’s It All Mean?

Culinary Center

Organic Certification

Is a certification process for producers of organic food and other organic agricultural products. In general, any business directly involved in food production can be certified, including seed suppliers, farmers, food processors, retailers and restaurants. The National Organic Program (run by the USDA) is in charge of the legal definition of organic in the United States and also performs organic certification.

Requirements vary from country to country and generally involve a set of production standards for growing, storage, processing, packaging and shipping that include;

• Avoidance of synthetic chemical inputs (e.g. fertilizer, pesticides, antibiotics, food additives), irradiation, and the use of sewage sludge;
• Avoidance of genetically modified seed; use of farmland that has been free from prohibited chemical inputs for a number of years (often, three or more); for livestock, adhering to specific requirements for feed, housing, and breeding;
• Keeping detailed written production and sales records;
• Maintaining strict physical separation of organic products from non-certified products;
• Undergoing periodic on-site inspections.

All Natural

All natural foods” is a widely used term in food labeling and marketing with a variety of definitions, most of which are vague. The term is often assumed to imply foods that are minimally processed and all of whose ingredients are natural products (in the chemist’s sense of that term), but the lack of standards in most jurisdictions means that the term assures nothing. In some countries, the term “natural” is defined and enforced. In others, such as the United States, it has no meaning

The international Food and Agriculture Organization’s Codex Alimentarius does not recognize the term “natural” but does have a standard for organic foods. Fundamentally, almost all foodstuffs are derived from the natural products of plants and animals

Free Range

Denotes a method of farming husbandry where the animals, for at least part of the day, can roam freely outdoors, rather than being confined in an enclosure for 24 hours each day. On many farms, the outdoors ranging area is fenced, thereby technically making this an enclosure, however, free range systems usually offer the opportunity for extensive locomotion and sunlight prevented by indoor housing systems. Free range may apply to meat, eggs or dairy farming.

The term is used in two senses that do not overlap completely: as a farmer-centric description of husbandry methods, and as a consumer-centric description of them. There is a diet where the practitioner only eats meat from free-range sources called ethical omnivorism, which is a type of semivegetarian.

In ranching, free-range livestock are permitted to roam without being fenced in, as opposed to fenced-in pastures. In many of the agriculture-based economies, free-range livestock are quite common.

Cage Free

The American Humane Association certifies not just one but three types of humanely raised eggs from hens reared in production systems that meet their rigorous humane animal welfare standards. They include:

• Eggs from hens raised in Enriched Colony Houses: Enriched Colony Housing provides a small flock of birds with room to sit, stand, turn around and extend their wings, as well as a nest box, scratching area and perches that allow hens to move about freely and express their natural behaviors, letting chickens be chickens. More farmers are converting from old small, conventional cages to this humane housing for hens as retailers and consumers expect higher animal welfare standards at affordable prices.
• Eggs from hens raised in cage-free systems: American Humane Association certifies more than 90 percent of all the cage-free eggs produced in the United States. Hens raised in cage-free systems have room to roam around on litter, elevated perches, nest boxes, and areas to peck and scratch. Hens in cage-free housing may have access to the outdoors.
• Eggs from hens raised Free-Range or on Pasture: Free-range and pasture systems provide birds with daytime access to outdoor areas. The hens have access to sheltered areas at nighttime and during inclement weather. Eggs that have the American Humane Certified label “Free-range” require at least 21.8 square feet of outdoor pasture for each hen. Eggs that have the American Humane Certified label “Raised on Pasture” require at least 2.5 acres per 1,000 hens of outdoor space during the daytime, and access to sheltered areas at nighttime and during inclement weather. Hens are free to roam daily, as well as flap, perch, forage and dust-bathe, which is natural hen behavior. Pastures must be rotated regularly. Hens must be provided water, shade and shelter from predators and wild birds.​

Antibiotic Free (ABF)

• “No human antibiotics” – doesn’t mean NO antibiotics. These livestock can still be raised with animal-only antibiotics. Some will say that’s different. An antibiotic is an antibiotic, and chickens raised with animal antibiotics are NOT “no antibiotics ever”. How much animal antibiotic was used?? You just don’t know.
• “Responsible use” means “antibiotics may be used” – Responsible is good. It’s what everybody should be, but livestock raised under “responsible antibiotics use” may be raised with antibiotics: human antibiotics when needed to treat a disease and animal antibiotics to prevent disease, that’s nowhere, near “no antibiotics ever”
• “No antibiotics for growth promotion “allow antibiotics for lots other reasons”. The FDA says chicken companies should stop using human antibiotics for growth promotion. But livestock companies can still use human antibiotics for disease prevention and treatment, up to the legal limit. The same goes for using animal antibiotics, that’s a lot of opportunity to use antibiotics.
• “All natural” and “clean labels” don’t say anything about antibiotics, and that tells you something. All natural tells you nothing along how the livestock was raised, ingredients labels typically only tells you what’s in the packaged product, not what when into the livestock when it was growing. If they are not saying anything about antibiotics, it could be because there is nothing good to say.
• “Only “no antibiotics ever (also referred to as “never never)” means no antibiotics of any kind at any time. If you want livestock that was raised with zero antibiotics, look for the claim “NO ANTIBIOTICS EVER” that means none of any kind.

Claim	Can Antibiotics be used?	How used
No human antibiotics	YES	Animal antibiotics okay
Responsible use	YES	Animal antibiotics okay Human antibiotics to treat disease
No antibiotics for growth promotion	YES	Animal antibiotics okay Human antibiotics okay for all other legal uses
All natural and clean label	YES	Any legal use
No antibiotics Ever	NO	never

Hormone Free

Another label that is misleading is “No Hormones Added.” Additive hormones are banned by the FDA and have been for the past 50 years. So no growth hormones are added to the chicken we eat, because they are illegal so when companies market their chicken as “No Added Hormones” just realize that this label applies to all chicken eaten in the United States.

Genetically Modified Organism

A genetically modified organism (GMO), also known as a transgenic organism, is any organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques (i.e. genetically engineered organism). GMOs are the source of medicines and genetically legal term, ‘living modified organism’, defined in the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, which regulates international trade in living GMOs (specifically, “any living organism that possesses a novel combination of genetic material obtained through the use of modern biotechnology”).

Genetically modified crops (GM crops, or biotech crops) are plants used in agriculture, the DNA of which has been modified using genetic engineering techniques. In most cases the aim is to introduce a new trait to the plant which does not occur naturally in the species. Examples in food crops include resistance to certain pests, diseases, or environmental conditions, reduction of spoilage, or resistance to chemical treatments (e.g. resistance to an herbicide), or improving the nutrient profile of the crop. Examples in non-food crops include production of pharmaceutical agents, biofuels, and other industrially useful goods, as well as for bioremediation.

Farmers have widely adopted GM technology. Between 1996 and 2013, the total surface area of land cultivated with GM crops increased by a factor of 100, from 17,000 square kilometers (4,200,000 acres) to 1,750,000 km2 (432 million acres). 10% of the world’s croplands were planted with GM crops in 2010. In the US, by 2014, 94% of the planted area of soybeans, 96% of cotton and 93% of corn were genetically modified varieties. In recent years GM crops expanded rapidly in developing countries. In 2013 approximately 18 million farmers grew 54% of worldwide GM crops in developing countries.

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