Glossary of common food labels/terms

Individual food label terms should in our view never be the single factor driving source choices given how many labels there are, how differently they’re interpreted and because by themselves they don’t tell much of a story. That said, they can be quite helpful as a screening layer, but only if you know their limitations, warts and all. Here’s a quick rundown, grouped for easier reading by the Baseline plus Benchmark standard we’ve taken in our Real Life Sourcing approach.

“Must haves” – i.e. what we think of as part of our Baseline standard for good sources. Individually, relatively limited terms, but taken together they point you out of factory farming and into the family farm realm where better practices and healthier animals live. So particularly for grocery store shopping or evaluating sourcing language you see when dining out, useful screeners to look for.

• Antibiotic free –simple but important USDA standard (here’s their standards page for meat and poultry) requiring that the animals were raised without antibiotics. Animals can be antibiotic free and still get other funky stuff, but nonetheless this is a good bit of information to have and helps rule out a good chunk of factory operations where antibiotics are needed to shield animals from all the gunk lurking in confinement feeding setups.
• No added hormones – irrelevant for hogs and poultry because added hormones are already illegal. For beef/dairy though, this is a good factory farm separator because growth and other hormones are quite common in commercial farming. So true by default on hogs and poultry, important to know on beef.
• No animal byproducts – Even though a few of these animals are technically omnivores, they don’t often act the part, certainly not by chowing slaughterhouse waste and other animal byproducts…practices not uncommon in factory farming. So confirming an all vegetarian diet is a good thing.
• Cage Free – mostly seen in context of egg-laying chickens, simply tells you the birds aren’t confined to cages, a relatively low standard but important to know as cages are common in factory farming of eggs.
• Crate Free – Cage free’s sibling standard in the raising of hogs, this means farms aren’t using the super-confining crates common to factory hog farming.
• Free to roam –Typically used to speak to how much room animals have to move around, most often related to poultry indoors in barns. An unregulated term that doesn’t indicate outdoor access by itself and there’s no clear standard for how much room to move this term should indicate. But along with other key words for indoor spaces - well ventilated, natural light exposure, natural bedding, indoor enrichments (i.e. stuff for a chicken to perch on) – does speak to a focus on quality of the living space that’s well past factory farming.
• Natural – USDA standard requiring no artificial ingredients or added color, and only minimally processed. Focused mainly on how meat is processed, so alone this term doesn’t tell you much about how the animal was raised, but again rules out a big area of factory farming activity – artificial enhancement during/after processing.
• Naturally raised – Strengthened, but voluntary, USDA standard now requires animals are raised without growth promotants, antibiotics, and have never been fed animal byproducts. No information about outdoor access, confinement standards etc. but a clear improvement over “Natural” alone because it focuses on standards for how the animals were raised.

“Much as you cans” – we think of these mostly as part of our Benchmark, or goal standard for good sources that we’ve started to work in and want to include as often as possible. Pretty darned strong on their own, signs of good animal welfare practices, and generally worthy of getting into your repertoire as much as you can. But because they tend to result in proteins that are significantly higher priced, and less accessible, not always feasible on the budget of time and money many of us work with.

• Pastured or pasture raised – Suggests animals were raised outdoors on pasture. Generally a very good thing for all its downstream effects on what the animal eats, how much they move around, get sunshine, etc. Once again, no agreed upon standard for when and how these terms can be used so interpretations vary widely. But a plenty good starting point, better if you can get at questions on a specific farm like how long, how often, on grass, how confined, etc.
• Grassfed/grass-finished – The key is the “finished” part since all cows spend a good chunk of their life on grass before finishing on either grain or grass. The USDA’s grassfed definition is relatively weak because it contains a loophole that means that cattle finished in a large scale feedlot could be fed cut grass and supplements and still qualify as grassfed. The American Grassfed Association’s standards are stonger and hit the core of what you’re looking for – continuous access to pasture, no feedlots, grass/forage throughout their lives, no antibiotics or hormones. Either way, grassfed/grass-finished is significantly more expensive but a good thing if you can work it in. And with luck price will moderate as supply improves.
• Local – Definitions on local vary. The stricter measure? Within 100 miles. A more common, but less strict deifinition? Within the same state, or less than 400 miles. In either case, taken together with other indicators of good animal practices and once you settle on what local standard you want to apply, means you’re food racked up fewer frequent flier miles getting to you. And you’d be surprised at how far away some higher-grade proteins come from (think chains who need greater volume at lower price) – like grassfed beef from places like Argentina and Australia.

“Tweeners” – these are terms with some important impacts but also with real questions or that are still too unevenly adopted to tell a full story. On balance they’re net positive for sources that have them, but shouldn’t necessarily merit a bad mark for sources that don’t.

• Organic – A USDA certified term that limits the use of chemicals, pesticides, hormones, antibiotics and other inputs in food production, animal feed, etc. Generally a good thing but know that plenty of family farms that are pretty organic in practice don’t get the certification due to cost, disagreement with the direction of the standard, etc. And the standard doesn’t specify much in the way of production practices for how the animals are raised. For example organic beef cattle can be, and often are, finished in large confinement feeding operations under the organic standard. Bottom line, plenty that’s positive but also enough spirited debate (this recent article from Mark Bitman chronicles two similar family farms coming to opposite conclusions on organic) to land in the ‘tweener category and weigh against the costs involved.
• Free range – A similar idea to “Pastured”, and one that speaks to outdoor access mainly for chickens, but despite what the words suggest, the USDA standard is limited…”Producers must demonstrate to the Agency that the poultry has been allowed access to the outside.” No requirement for type of outdoor access (pasture, dirt lot), length of access, proof the animal actually took advantage of said access, etc. So another term that’s most relevant (and worth paying for) in connection with additional info about how things are done at a particular farm.
• Animal Welfare Certified - There are now a handful of organizations issuing certifications related to animal welfare. Perhaps best known is the Global Animal Partnership’s Animal Welfare Rating Standards, most prominently on display at Whole Foods. This 5 step rating system evaluates how pigs, chickens, beef and turkey are raised. A 1 rating means essentially cage/crate/confinement pen free. And you’ll find plenty of 1’s at your Whole Foods. 4’s and 5’s mean you’re up into pasture-centered farms and more premium pricing. So you can find what rating is doable for you on standards, prices, etc. and choose accordingly.

Others include the Animal Welfare Approved standard, one of the most rigorous of the bunch, requiring among other things that all animals are pastured, and Certified Humane, which falls somewhere in between these first two. In the grand scheme these systems represent a promising step because they hold out the possibility of a common language that would make all our lives easier and encourage more common practices across farms of all sizes.

That said, subscription to these systems varies widely. We’ve spoken to family farmers who, while they would qualify at the very high end of the Whole Foods rating system for example (3-5’s on a 5 point scale), object to some of the specifications, which they feel unfairly disadvantage smaller farms and require unnecessary investments beyond the reach of a lot of the very farms the system intends to lift up.

Net, net, like so many other parts of this fast-changing food world these days… animal welfare rating systems have some really promising bits, some questionable bits and by themselves doesn’t answer the question for you. But taken in context with other info you can gather, a helpful group of tools that will hopefully evolve and get better over time.

“Head scratchers” – terms that folks place a lot of stock in but have lost much of their meaning without info on the specific practices at a particular farm.

• Angus/Certified Angus Beef – Straight up good marketing mainly. No regulated definitions. The Angus breed is very common (both full and mixed breeds) and visually connected with beef… picture your standard black angus cattle scattered across a field. But there’s little that’s inherently superior about it and the name tells you very little about how the animals were raised. In fact we’ve talked with several grassfed farmers who, while they tip their cap to the marketing job, simply think of it as a beef breed and certainly not the only one to raise. It’s quality or lack thereof comes mostly from who raised it and how, not the breed label itself.