潜水简介：
- In order to be considered "natural," food products must be free from preservatives as well as artificial colors, flavors and sweeteners,根据在线调查of 5,175 people from 10 countries by GNT Group.
- 三分之二（66％）表示，他们通常会检查成分，如果他们没有时间单独评估每个产品组件，他们会扫描标签以确保没有试图避免的成分。
- If the food item does contain coloring, 54% of the respondents said they prefer natural coloring such as edible fruits and vegetables. Only 5% said synthetically produced colors were acceptable.
Dive Insight:
There is still no official U.S. government definition for the term "natural" when it comes to food. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has been asked so many times about it that the agency posted this concise statement:
“从食品科学的角度来看，很难定义一种是'天然'的食品但是，如果食物不含添加的颜色，人造香料或合成物质，则该机构尚未反对使用该术语。”
但是，消费者并没有避免似乎直觉知道当他们看到它或在成分列表上阅读时，“自然”是什么。
这种令人困惑的情况使制造商在花钱制定“天然”食品和饮料，然后成功地销售它们时，在创新和消费者吸引力之间踩到了细微的界限。由于该定义是如此模糊，因此品牌如何成功？
该地区有一些昂贵的失误。2014年，通用磨坊解决了诉讼over use of the phrase “all-natural” on some of its Nature Valley products. The agreement prevents the company from describing products that contain high fructose corn syrup or maltodextrin as “natural.” And, in 2015, Diamond Foods定居a lawsuit by agreeing to compensate consumers who bought Kettle Brand products that contained a "natural" or similar label in the U.S.在2010年1月3日至2015年2月24日之间。
对于制造商和消费者来说，自然色正越来越成为必不可少的。对于制造商来说，有一个增长率77％对于在2009年至2013年之间使用自然色的新产品。其他统计数据显示所有食品和饮料产品的68％launched in North America from September 2015 to August 2016 used natural colors.
GNT组调查结果表明，在哪些程度上重要的成分取决于特定产品。消费者使用糖果和软饮料，但不赞成使用人造成分，因为超过一半的受访者认为这些产品通常包含合成添加剂。但是，如果仅使用天然成分制成，则三分之一的人会购买糖果，柠檬水，冰淇淋等。
酸奶被认为是该小组最自然的产品，所有受访者中有三分之二拒绝接受该类别中的添加剂，并且更喜欢它仅包含天然成分。
The takeaway is that a product that bills itself as "natural" — especially if it's an indulgent sweet — is likely to do better with consumers. However, the fact that there is no definition of "natural" in the United States makes it a potentially hazardous label claim, since consumers can easily bring lawsuits challenging the ingredients. For the sake of both manufacturers and consumers, it might make sense for FDA toprovide a definition。
