Currently, "Natural Flavor" and "Artificial Flavor" are the only required listings in the "Ingredients" section on food labels (also often under "nutrition facts") for a subset of a variety of ingredients. Unfortunately, this leaves a large space of ambiguity. There are a variety of reasons why labeling an entire section of honestly vastly differing ingredients only as "natural flavor" or "artificial flavor" can easily be seen as problematic.

To start, this does not make clear every ingredient that somebody with specific health issues may be trying to avoid. Additionally, many diets forbid people from consuming certain ingredients that are not made clear in the "ingredients" section. These include diets that people may be born into such as religious diets. Furthermore, this prevents many ethical and moral eaters from knowing if they can support a certain product and the organization behind that product. As well as that, many people interested in nutrition are not getting the full picture of what they are truly consuming and that could lead to choices that they may have not have intended to make as well as hampering their ability to learn. Lastly, people have every reason to be able to know exactly what they are consuming, regardless of the reason for wanting to know.

There is no good reason why ingredients shouldn't be specifically clarified as much as possible in the "ingredients" section of the food label. The only thing that clearing these ambiguities up will bring is more knowledge and clarity. It will allow people to make better and safer decisions for themselves and anyone they buy for as well. In contrast, all obfuscating these ingredients, under somewhat misleading titles, does is make it more difficult for the average person to understand. Even many already informed people find it difficult to understand what they are truly buying and whether or not they can or should actually make the purchase.

Another thing to note is that even when attempting to contact manufacturers for clarification of ingredients there is not always a clear and concise response. Sometimes there is no response at all.

To summarize, there is every reason to have ingredients be specified down to the exact ingredient used. There is no good reason to hide or otherwise curtain ingredients behind arguably misleading organizational titles such as "natural flavor" or "artificial flavor."

Let's make a change and bring real transparency to our people!