Make My Meal Clean Label

ALEXANDRIA, Va.—Many American consumers have made it clear that they don’t want artificial sweeteners, colors or preservatives, nor do they want genetically modified ingredients and highly processed products. According to Winsightgrocerybusiness.com, they’re also trying to avoid unpronounceable ingredients in the foods they eat—all of which has led food and beverage manufacturers to reformulate many of their products and has given rise to the growth of niche companies touting products with few or good (and recognizable) ingredients.

These items are known as “clean label” products, and the big push for clean labels also extends into retailers’ private brands. Kroger’s Simple Truth lines boasts more than 1,400 products that are “organic,” “free from” and “natural.” The “free from” designation lets customers know that the offerings are missing more than 101 artificial preservatives and ingredients, the company said.

Wholesome Pantry by ShopRite has more than 500 products that are free from 110 ingredients, including artificial colors, flavors and preservatives. “We wanted to create a brand based on truth and transparency,” said Stephanie Golaszewski, Wakefern Food Corp.’s own brands manager.

Likewise, H-E-B’s private label, Select Ingredients, features products “without artificial flavors, high fructose corn syrup, certified colors and hundreds of other synthetic ingredients,” the company said. Albertsons’ Open Nature private label features “minimally processed products that support a clean lifestyle for the whole family, the company said. And 75% of Target’s Simply Balanced line has no artificial flavors, preservatives, sweeteners, colors, trans fats or high-fructose corn syrup.

For private label, these concerns started with organics, said Steven Howell, solution sales consultant, North America, for Solutions for Retail Brands, Fort Worth, Texas. “If you ignore this, you’ll be alienating a huge group of customers,” he said.

Big food manufacturers have suffered a lot of trust issues in recent years, but much of it has related to GMO products. Now he said, “Retailers have become a lot more open about transparency and making changes to ingredients and being more nimble and responsive.”

Outside private label, small companies are hitting the marketplace with clean labels from the outset. Once Upon a Farm, which produces cold-pressed fruit and vegetable blends for babies and children, partnered with the Clean Label Project and received the top score for overall rating, product purity, product value, heavy metals, process contaminants and byproduct contaminants.

“Millennials are wanting shorter ingredient lists they can actually pronounce,” said Cassandra Curtis, Once Upon a Farm’s co-founder and chief innovation officer. “They want to understand where their food comes from and trust the companies behind it. We keep ingredients simple, as close to their natural form as possible, and work with farmers and vendors we know and trust.”

The clean label trend is being felt everywhere, said Carl Jorgensen, executive vice president of Linkage Research & Consulting and managing director of the Free From Forum, a specialty practice of Linkage Research, Chicago. “All emerging brands are now clean label,” he said. “That’s the price of entry.”

There is no clear FDA definition of what constitutes a clean label, and some food industry experts are petitioning to change the designation to “clear label,” to highlight the transparency these products offer.

No matter the final decision, consumers today feel they have the right to expect full transparency from both retailers and brands. “The more information people have about how and where their food was grown and produced, the better able they are to make informed choices,” said Lisa Sedlar, CEO of Green Zebra Grocery, a grocery-convenience hybrid with three stores in Portland, Oregon. (Editor’s note: Green Zebra Grocery has been instrumental in reinventing convenience by focusing on healthy choices. See more from Green Zebra in Ideas 2 Go.

For more from NACS on food-label transparency, see “Cleary Labeled” in the May 2019 issue of NACS Magazine.

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