Whether the benefits are real or perceived, consumers are demanding natural products with simpler ingredient lists. Such products are inexorably linked with the overarching health and wellness trend in the food industry.

“The cleaner label trend goes hand in glove with healthy eating in general. You can't benefit from healthful claims, such as whole grains, if you have a label littered with chemical information,” says Marc Green, senior marketing manager at National Starch, Bridgewater, N.J. “It's contradictory, and you lose credibility. What we see is the convergence of two trends, healthier eating and more natural life styles. You can't disassociate the terminology from the claim and the position.”

According to a 2007 study by the American Bakers Association, healthy ingredients were the fourth most important issue to consumers when asked about their bread. Forty-one percent said that healthy ingredients were very important to them. Only 3 percent said health was not at all important. A 2008 study by market research firm Mintel showed that 47 percent of bread consumers value nutrition more than price, and 42 percent of bread consumers read nutritional panels before buying. More specifically, today's educated consumers are seeking clean labels on nutrition panels. Perhaps most notably, the company recently forecasted sales in the natural and organic segment to grow by nearly 20 percent between 2010 and 2012.

Open to interpretation

Despite the uptick in consumer demand, natural ingredients and all-natural claims remain a sort of Wild West of health claims.

“The term ‘natural’ is still open to interpretation, according to some in the industry, so what one person might consider natural, another may not,” says Kim Silva, operations team leader at Fairytale Brownies, Phoenix. “An example is regular bleached flour. Some consider it natural because the actual ingredients are the same as the unbleached product, but it is the process the flour goes through that some consider unnatural. So, sometimes defining what natural actually entails can be difficult.”

The question of perception versus reality among consumers also exists. When it comes to labels, citric acid or sodium bicarbonate may have a nefarious ring to some consumers, whereas their common names, apple vinegar and baking soda, sound homespun and natural. But the object isn't to trick consumers. In fact, honesty in labeling is another facet of clean labeling.

“People want clarity, they don't want to be deceived,” Green says. “People just want the truth, want manufacturers to be upfront about the products they make and what's in them.”

Currently, manufacturers are free to set their own definitions of natural. Consider PepsiCo.'s upcoming Pepsi Natural soda variety. How natural can soda be? The lack of strict regulation on what constitutes natural gives bakers substantial latitude when it comes to adding new lines or reformulating existing ones.

“Since the FDA has not defined natural as a regulated claim like they have for kosher, for example, a well-maintained plant can effectively bake their natural product on the same line as other products,” says Jeff Rootring, vice president of technical and training for St. Louis-based AB Mauri Fleischmann's. Bakers are thus able to modify their products to carry fewer ingredients or simpler ingredient ledgers without necessitating dedicated facilities, major equipment or labor alterations.

But that's not to say the process is simple. Bakers know that ingredient substitution is rarely a simple 1:1 proposition, and individual ingredient reduction can be treacherous because results depend on the interaction between ingredients, not just their sum. According to Emily Jack, marketing assistant at the National Honey Board, there are two issues bakers have to analyze as they seek to simplify their product labels.

“The first issue is visual,” she says. “Consumers are increasingly becoming label readers, and they want to see an ingredient listing with familiar names that connote positive reactions.”

This visual shift extends to both the packaging and the product itself, Green adds. “We have seen a lot of changes in the look and feel of the product, with a lot more emphasis on ideas like ‘raw’ and ‘wholesomeness.’ Also, more neutral colors are used instead of bright, synthetic or unnatural colors,” he says. “And we're seeing more front-of-package claims, too. It seems everyone has to have a package claim-even Cheetos has a natural claim.”

The second issue bakers face when simplifying or shortening an ingredient list is ensuring they are not removing functionalities while removing ingredients.

“Honey is a solution to this problem as it performs multiple functions in bakery foods, including extending shelf life, enhancing color, improving mouthfeel and keeping products moist for a longer period of time,” Jack says.

Justify higher costs with higher profits

Fairytale Brownies started using unbleached flour earlier this year. The mail order company began transitioning certain brownie flavors to unbleached flour in 2009, when Arizona's Whole Foods stores started selling the product. Already known for using natural ingredients, such as real butter, farm fresh-eggs and no artificial ingredients or preservatives in its gourmet brownies, Fairytale saw that switching to unbleached flour was the next logical step toward its goal of being all natural.

But unbleached flour, like other natural ingredients, tends to be more expensive than flour whitened by bleaching agents. This expense can be compounded if process changes are required. If a bakery produces a variety of product lines, for example, and some do not use all-natural ingredients, they may want to implement internal processes keeping lines separate to avoid cross-contamination.

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