In Jan. 2007, USDA hosted a public meeting on the issue, indicating their intent to enter into rulemaking. However, to date, USDA has neither formally announced proposed rulemaking, nor provided an interim policy. As result, processors are operating under the original 1982 policy, because this policy does not allow for chemical preservatives, except those exempted. Ingredients approved as antimicrobials cannot be used in natural products.
“However, opportunities for pathogen control still exist,” says Peterson. Processing aids can be labeled as such, don’t need to appear on product labels and can be used in natural products. “You can have a highly synthesized, more than minimally processed ingredient, and as long as it qualifies as a processing aid, it can be used in a natural product,” she says. The use of certain types of natural flavors is another way to add antimicrobial properties.
Using processing aids and natural flavors takes advantage of labeling loopholes and intended use. “The USDA says you can use an ingredient that inhibits the growth of pathogens as long as it doesn’t have an effect on shelf life. A natural flavor is OK to use if the intended use is for flavor contribution, not antimicrobial characteristics. If the intended use is about shelf life, then that’s not OK,” Peterson says.
Consider lactates made from corn, notes Peterson. “The USDA considers lactate to be no more than minimally processed. The question then arises, is there difference between a chemical preservative and a natural antimicrobial? Should it be OK to use a natural antimicrobial in a natural product, either for food safety, shelf life extension, or both? These are questions which will need to be addressed when the rulemaking process takes place.”
When the rules are ill-defined, it’s up to individual companies to decide which ingredients they believe can be used in naturally labeled USDA products. “The most-popular alternatives for natural meat and poultry products are things that were specifically excluded in the original 1982 policy,” says Peterson. “Those would include things like smoke, lemon juice, vinegar or higher salt levels.”
Natural antioxidants
Several companies have developed food-safety ingredients for natural products.
One option is derived from rosemary extracts. Rosemary’s natural antioxidants can improve shelf life by reducing oxidative deterioration, notes Gary Augustine, director, product management, antioxidants, Kalsec, Inc., Kalamazoo, MI. “Oxidation is a chain reaction, propagated by highly reactive free radicals generated during the initial oxidation stage. These free radicals react within a food and beverage system to form compounds which cause off odors and flavors.” He notes that “natural antioxidants contain naturally occurring phenolic compounds, which inhibit oxidation by stabilizing the highly reactive free radicals.”