Beware the "ethical" and "green" washing labels

In South Africa, it is illegal under the Food Labelling and Advertising regulations to use terms such as "natural" or "grass fed" or "free range" and other terms* on food products as they are potentially misleading.

To get around this, various trade mark licences have been obtained by the meat & dairy industry - for example, South African red meat producers have used a law firm to obtain a group trade mark called "Certified Natural" and can thus label their meats as "Certified Natural(TM)". Another example includes Free Range (TM) dairy, used by FairCape dairy (http://squaringgreencircles.blogspot.com/?spref=fb)

The SA Poultry Association developed the only standards (http://www.sapoultry.co.za/code_of_practice.html#q6) regarding Free Range chickens in SA - so anything chicken or egg product labelled "Free Range" only has to meet their standards, which are maximum TEN birds per square meter, with access to the outdoors (though not specified for how many hours, or how much out door space etc). This is what happens when industry is allowed to set their standards, or allowed to trade mark terms that would otherwise not be allowed.

*No statements can be printed on packaging which reads as follows:

1. Healthy or healthier
2. Additive free
3. Veterinary medicine free
4. A more humane treatment/rearing of animals e.g “karoo lamb”, “grass fed”, “grain fed”, “country reared”, “free range”, “pure”, “organic”, or similar wording.
5. Statement will only be allowed if it is compliant with guideline 8: “fresh”, “natural”, “pure”, “traditional”,“original/authentic”, “real/genuine”, “home made” / “hand made”, “farmhouse”, “selected”,“premium”/”finest”/”best”, “quality”.
6. Fish can only be labeled as “wild caught” and not as “wild”.

Relevant act: http://www.info.gov.za/view/DownloadFileAction?id=119808