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Understanding Food Labels



Are food labels becoming confusing to you?

Here are some things you should know before your next trip to the grocery store!

Here is the LINK to Kim's Visit with WKTV on this topic!

Pasture Raised vs. Free Range Poultry and Eggs

  • Caged:

  • Animals are contained to a 67-square inch area without daylight provided

  • Cage Free:

  • Animals are contained to a 1 square foot area but confined to barns rather than cages

  • Free Range:

  • Animals are contained to about 2 square feet area and have access to outdoors (though this does not mean that they go out there!)

  • Pasture-Raised:

  • Animals are given a 108-square foot area. They eat grass, bugs, worms, and anything else that is in the soil (as they would in nature). They are typically let out into the pasture in the morning and called back in in the evening.

Grass Fed vs. Grass Finished Beef/Meat

  • Grass Fed:

  • Ability to graze on grass but grains are also given/provided

  • New regulations: If the animal ate grass even for 1 day, the grass fed labeling is able to be used!

  • Grass Finished

  • No grain is ever given, only grass is consumed.

  • No growth hormones or antibiotics are given

  • The total maturity time is about 24-36 months vs. 18-20 months for grain fed

100% Organic:

  • All ingredients must be certified organic (excluding salt and water)

  • Any processing agents must be organic

  • May include the USDA Organic Seal or organic claim

Organic:

  • 95%+ of ingredients must be certified organic (excluding salt and water)

  • May include the USDA organic seal or organic claim

  • Organic ingredients must be identified by an asterisk or other mark.

Made with Organic_______:

  • At least 70% of the ingredients must be organic (excluding salt and water).

  • Cannot have the USDA organic seal or claim.

  • Organic ingredients must be identified by an asterisk or other mark.

Did you know?

Cows experience severe heartburn and pain when they consume soy and corn, so they will intuitively stop eating.

To keep them eating, (in order to fatten them up quickly) farmers will provide calcium carbonate (the active ingredient in Tums) to the cows to eliminate the heartburn and pain.

Why don’t we just let them eat grass the way it was intended?


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