Ben & Jerry's To Stop Calling Its Ice Cream 'All Natural'

Wallet Pop:

Ben & Jerry's, once a small Vermont dairy operation known for its all natural ingredients, is stripping the claim "all natural" from its packaging under pressure from consumer advocates who pointed out some components of the ice cream that simply don't exist in nature.

Just last month, the Center for Science in the Public Interest re-ignited a several year old push for Ben & Jerry's - now a unit of the massive European conglomerate Unilever - to stop making the claim.

Read the whole story: Wallet Pop

Comments

[TSRVT]

12:16 PM on 09/29/2010

I live a couple of miles from the site where they had their first shop. It's really sad to see what this company has become since being swallowed by Unilever, who is known more as a soap maker than anything else.

When they sold to Unilever, Ben and Jerry both extracted pledges that they would continue to use rBST-free milk and to set aside a portion of their profits for progressive charities and causes. We'll see how long the suits at Unilever keep those pledges...

[Ohsherri]

12:14 PM on 09/29/2010

Why don't they use natural vanilla instead of the synthetic???
And real cocoa too?
This ice cream is one of the expensive brands and I cannot believe they use the synthetic stuff.
What a rip-off.

[Aladdin Sane]

12:10 PM on 09/29/2010

Ben & Jerry's is not what is used to be. That's too bad. Some of that stuff was amazing but now it's just average.

Seriously, good aged cheddar cheese and garlic stuffed olives is a much more enjoyable treat than a tub of goo they're calling ice cream.

Oh, now there's an idea: cheddar and garlic stuffed olives Ben & Jerry's.

Any ideas for a catchy name?

[Mr Vegetarian NY]

11:21 AM on 09/29/2010

Who cares. It's junk food.
It has nothing to do with health or "natural".
This product harms people. Just the truth, but most people can't handle that.

[Dnietz]

11:33 AM on 09/29/2010

natural junk food is less bad for you than artificial junk food

slim healthy people could get away with occasionally having some desert with natural ingredients without any negative effects

not so with unnatural foods that should never been eaten at all by anyone

[Mr Vegetarian NY]

11:51 AM on 09/30/2010

This product is still unhealthy and will harm your body
in any amount, weather "natural" or not.
If you want to eat it, fine. Just be honest about it and stop living
in denial.
I drink beer sometimes. I know it harms my body, but I don't pretend that
a few beers is going to harm me, it does. It's my choice.

[Dem4Lyfe]

11:05 AM on 09/29/2010

Great. Now when will Breyer's quit lying about their ice cream?

[Flip75]

12:52 PM on 09/29/2010

BINGO! At least B&J's is being proactive about this.

[Rand]

10:16 AM on 09/29/2010

They lost my business when they discontinued From Russia With Buzz

[jtj]

10:02 AM on 09/29/2010

What's not all natural about "chubby hubby"?

[PolicyWonkette]

09:51 AM on 09/29/2010

If it's not from natural ingredients, then take the words off the label. No biggie. People will still buy it.

Anyone who wants all natural -- really delicious -- ice cream knows how to make it from scratch.

[KarasudaJay]

09:45 AM on 09/29/2010

Ben & Jerry's is vile and has been that way since they started going for our outlandish flavors. I've never understood how people can eat that much sugar.

[Mr Vegetarian NY]

11:22 AM on 09/29/2010

People shouldn't be eating any sugar, it's poisen, but
most people don't want to hear that and don't care.
It's their bodies they can do whatever they want with it.

[BlindChance]

11:37 AM on 09/29/2010

"It's their bodies they can do whatever they want with it." Exactly!

[somearelost]

11:49 AM on 09/29/2010

Maybe you should have some sugar......you know to wake you up a little bit so you don't make a horrendous spelling mistake again. Also, may a suggest a cheeseburger for lunch.

[GeoNorth]

09:31 AM on 09/29/2010

RE they still calling Breyer's "All Natural"? Because if that's what all natural tastes like, it's awful. It's grainy. Who wants grainy ice cream? I'll stick with my Ben & Jerry's. I just wish they would replace the corn syrup with real cane sugar. When you eat something with cane sugar, your body will tell you when you've had enough. No such message from corn syrup. Bet that's why so many products have it.

[Zillacabra]

10:00 AM on 09/29/2010

This article is very misleading and missing important facts. Go to the Ben & Jerry's website and read the ingredients on your favorite flavors:

http://www.benjerry.com/flavors/our-flavors/#

Ben & Jerry's ice cream itself is made with sugar, not corn syrup. The culprit is the "add ins" like Heath Bars or marshmallow (like in Phish Food and S'mores) in a few flavors. Here are the ingredients for the basic chocolate (Cream, Liquid Sugar, Skim Milk, Water, Cocoa (Processed With Alkali), Egg Yolks, Guar Gum And Carrageenan) and vanilla (Cream, Skim Milk, Liquid Sugar (Sugar, Water), Water, Egg Yolks, Fair Trade Certified (Tm) Vanilla Extract, Sugar, Guar Gum, Carrageenan) flavors. The article is misleading as only a handful of flavors are affected.

[mutton]

10:19 AM on 09/29/2010

Oh, brother. Back in the 80s, everybody ran screaming from cane sugar because it was evil incarnate. All the marketing was about "honey" instead of sugar, because it was somehow more "natural". And everybody back then claimed they had studies to prove how bad sugar was. Studies about HFCS now are as inconclusive and misinterpreted as the sugar studies were back then. The long and the short of it is if you're so concerned about sugar, don't eat sweetened food products.

[Sepulchre]

12:18 PM on 09/29/2010

HFCS have been shown conclusively to have a different biochemical effect on the brain that either cane sugar or honey. That is the one thing the HFCS commercials leave out when they say it effects your body the same as cane sugar. Yes it effects the metabolism the same, but that is not what effects food cravings, that all takes place in your brain.

[ruburnt]

08:44 AM on 09/29/2010

Not a surprise, Ben and Jerry's ice cream is over rated anyways......

[Pucker]

08:24 AM on 09/29/2010

'Natural' is completely meaningless on packages. There are no limits placed on use of the word by the FDA, like there are with 'Organic'.

[BrooklynChef]

08:13 AM on 09/29/2010

I, frankly, could care less that they are removing the all natural label. It means nothing anyway. I eat B&J Ice Cream because it tastes good. I eat it so infrequently that I truly do not care if there are a couple less than natural ingredients in there anyway.

[Never Again]

08:10 AM on 09/29/2010

This shouldn't be a surprise. Once Unilever took over the brand, it was only a matter of time before both the ingredients and the integrity of the brand changed for the worse.

http://motherjones.com/politics/2003/01/culture-change

[rcampbell]

08:21 AM on 09/29/2010

You're absolutely right, never Again. Here's how it works. Some years ago, my partners and I took a company public. As part of the process we signed a document wherein we essentially swore that we understood that by releasing ownership to the public our primary job as top management was to return to the maximum profit to the shareholders. Now, that's not an unreasonable request of those who own shares in a company but have no managerial control, but if profitability is management's first goal, the product quality isn't. Nor are customers, employees', vendors.

[Never Again]

08:24 AM on 09/29/2010

Thanks for the insight. There was a big run on companies like this a number of years ago. When all those veggie products came out and it was trendy to be vegetarian the big companies couldn't wait to buy them up.

[Demarcus Jackson]

08:09 AM on 09/29/2010

Just use real vanilla, real cane sugar, and real cocoa. I realize that it may be more expensive, but at least you would be able to make the all natural claim.