Behind the label, unmasking what’s in your food

An alert about the food labels you may trust. Those buzz words on the front of your favorite products, “low fat,” “whole grain,” “all natural,” may not tell you the whole story about what’s inside.

They’re hard to miss — labels aimed at the increasingly health conscience buyer.

“When I first started it was a million dollar industry now it’s a $300 billion industry,” said Starkie Sowers, Clark’s Nutrition director of education.

“I’m married to a natural gal and she won’t buy anything unless it’s natural,” said shopper Garrett Rice.

Just about every product a label, “indulge guilt free,” “no artificial anything?” What does that really mean? Typically not much.

“I think if you ate the whole bag you wouldn’t be indulgently guilt free, it’s indulgently guilt free specifically if you are eating the proper serving size,” said Sowers.

The FDA doesn’t allow food companies to print anything that is not truthful, but it doesn’t define every claim either. For example, “natural.” We found “natural” on all kinds of products: water, meat, dog food, even laundry detergent.

“We do not take for granted that natural means natural because lets face it –it’s a sales pitch cause everybody wants to buy natural and healthy stuff, but is it really that way?” said Rice.

“Currently there is an FDA ruling that is going on and there is going to be a definitive answer for what can and cannot be used for the label “natural.” Until then, we are all just kind of waiting to see what the outcome is going to be,” said Sowers.

Some labels you can rely on.

“If it says low sodium it indeed has to be 140 mg or less of sodium per serving so that actually has a meaning,” said Sowers.

For whole grain and whole wheat, the FDA only has suggested guidelines.

“When it says it contains whole wheat or includes whole wheat, it doesn’t mean the whole thing is whole wheat,” said Sowers.

So how do you find out what you are actually buying? Read the list of ingredients listed on the back carefully.

If you are looking for 100 percent whole wheat, the first ingredient should be whole wheat, not wheat flour.

“Not only a little misleading, really misleading. Its one of those things that really kind of irritates me when I look at a bread panel and it says contains whole wheat and I go so it doesn’t really mean anything to me does it have all whole wheat let me look at the label. When I look at it — nope not even close, next,” said Sowers.

Also look for a seal from the Whole Grains Council. Organic products will have a seal from the USDA, Non-GMO also has a verification label.

However going through a product’s entire packaging takes time, time that not every shopper we talked has.

“You would spend 20 minutes for just bread alone trying to read all of these; it’s confusing,” said Steve Wald.

We decided to put it to the test. We bought three loaves of bread, each with different packaging and list of ingredients, and asked shoppers their impressions of the product first from the front panel.

“A lot of wheat and probably several other multigrains,” said shopper Alice Summers.

“They definitely make it difficult, what is the difference between 12 and 13 grains,” said Wald.

We asked again after looking at the list of ingredients.

“A lot more chemicals, things I can’t pronounce, things I wouldn’t expect,” said Summers.

“Does appear to be whole wheat,” said Wald.

We found the more claims on the front, the healthier our shoppers thought it was.

“This would seem to be very healthy,” said Wald.

However perceptions changed after reading further.

“There are preservatives here, but it would have to have some preservatives here, it clearly does have some, no questions about it,” said Wald.

“Even though the label doesn’t give you a lot of indication that it has fewer chemicals, if I read the label I would chose this brand,” said Summers.

“They clearly are trying to alter your beliefs on the basis of the front as opposed to when you read the back,” said Wald.

“I think yeah, we should take better care of our — what we are selling to the public,” said Rice.