“Clean-label” food is a trend that has been evolving over the last few years and one that has quickly caught the attention of food companies as it can often mean higher prices at retail.

Generally, the clean label is meant to imply that a product contains ingredients that consumers feel they can recognize and have at home. It is about “natural” products and those that contain no artificial ingredients or additives.

While there is no official definition associated with the terminology, it has, for some consumers, become the norm, while for others, a clean label may influence only a part of their purchasing decisions.

In a 2013 white paper by the American Egg Board (AEB), it was concluded that consumers want to see ingredients in the products they buy that they are comfortable and familiar with – items they would use to make recipes themselves.

Statistics cited by AEB at the time were that 61% of consumers believe a product is healthier when labeled “all natural,” 93% of consumers indicated that they prefer to see common names for ingredients on the labels and nearly 60% of surveyed consumers said they would be willing to pay more for natural products.

While opportunities have been forthcoming for food companies as the clean movement has evolved, new challenges also have been created, according to speakers at the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) meeting in Chicago, Ill., in mid-July.

In fact, speakers at IFT18 noted that while consumers want many different things when it comes to a clean label, it is imperative that manufacturers understand the regulatory and legal guidelines necessary to minimize and eliminate risk. This can be a challenging task, they said, considering that the ingredient landscape for delivering against consumers’ clean label requirements is constantly evolving.

Another challenge for the food industry continues to be how to ensure an adequate, consistent and reliable source of “naturally derived” ingredients when taking on a clean label. The ingredients must be available at the level necessary to ensure consistency in manufacturing, and food companies must take care that incorporation of these ingredients does not inadvertently affect such things as the taste, texture and nutritional content when they make an ingredient switch, speakers at IFT18 noted.

Whether or not companies decide to go “natural” with their products, it is important to be honest and simple with messages and formulations in order to build a trusting relationship with consumers, the IFT18 speakers said.

The good news for animal agriculture is that meat and eggs are considered among the purest of clean-label products. In fact, these products are widely recognized and generally are held in high favor by consumers as being natural and containing no artificial ingredients.