Ben & Jerrys Is Not ‘All Natural’

Posted by majestic on September 27, 2010

I recently crossed Häagen-Dazs off my list of favorite ice creams due to its use of rBGH milk. In this disinfo story we quoted author John Robbins:

Ben & Jerry’s gets all their milk from dairies that have pledged not to inject their cows with genetically engineered bovine growth hormone (rBGH). Why, then, can’t Haagen Dazs, Breyers and Baskin-Robbins do the same?

OK, so there was still Ben & Jerry’s which is fairly easy to find, at least where I live. But wait, now it turns out that some of their ice cream isn’t natural after all! Story from NPR:

Indie ice cream pioneer Ben & Jerry’s will be dropping the phrase “All Natural” from some of its ice cream and frozen yogurt cartons, it announced today.

The flavors containing alkalized cocoa, corn syrup, and partially hydrogenated soybean oil particularly irked the folks over at the Center for the Science in the Public Interest, who had asked the company to stop using “all natural” claims last month in a letter to parent company Unilever.

That leads us to wonder, if Ben & Jerry’s — Insert catchphrase “Peace, Love and Ice Cream” here — isn’t natural, then what is?

Apparently, the USDA allows meat and poultry to be labeled “natural” if they don’t include artificial colors or ingredients, and are not more than “minimally processed.” But the rest of the food supply’s definition of natural is up for grabs…

It’s enough to make you give up ice cream altogether. Almost…