Natural food: A reality or a myth?

Today, the word "natural" is applied to many products, especially to foods. This reassuring term tranquilizes the consumer considering the alarmist messages from the mass media. But, this designation cannot be scientifically justified. The naturality arguments cannot be relied on the origins or on the chemical characteristics, on the technological treatments of foods, on the lack of toxical compounds and pathogenic germs, and but also on the nutritional and sensory properties. In fact, natural food seems to be a myth which strengthens the social relationship. The obsession of the return to nature and of the traditional uses, the social acceptability decrease of the scientific progress, the belief that nature is always salutary, the attractive and commercial image of natural food are consistent with the paradoxal behavior of the consumer, because of wishes of a non industrial food but a requirement of an absolute safety often obtained by technological treatments. Therefore, natural food would be a dream otherwise a myth because of the inability to establish a definition and to associate it to a regulation. (C) 2015 Societe francaise de nutrition. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.