Walk down any grocery aisle and you’ll be surrounded by promises. Words like “fresh,” “natural,” “free-range,” and “best by” jump off the packaging, designed to make you feel confident about what you’re putting in your cart. The problem is that many of these claims carry far less meaning than the average shopper assumes. Food labels frequently use carefully crafted language that misleads consumers into believing products are healthier or more sustainable than they actually are. Here are five of the most commonly misunderstood labels – and what they actually mean in practice.
1. “Natural”
The term “natural” does not have any specific meaning when it comes to marketing foods. Instead, the word is used to elicit assumptions from well-meaning consumers seeking products free of artificial ingredients. You might picture rolling fields, minimal processing, and clean ingredient lists, but the reality is far murkier. Even junk food can come with a natural label if “nothing artificial or synthetic (including all color additives regardless of source) has been included in, or has been added to, a food that would not normally be expected to be in that food,” according to the FDA.
According to Consumer Reports, “natural” labels offer no clear meaning and are misleading consumers – more than two-thirds of Americans think it means more than it does. “In fact, they think it means no artificial ingredients or colors, no GMOs, no pesticides for meat, they think it means no drugs… and it doesn’t mean any of those things,” said Urvashi Rangan, director of Consumer Safety and Sustainability at Consumer Reports. Research published in the journal Agricultural and Resource Economics Review confirms the financial cost of this confusion: consumers are willing to pay 20% more on average for “natural” products. Meanwhile, more than 60% of consumers wrongly believed meat labeled as “natural” was raised without antibiotics, growth hormones, and genetically modified organisms during production.
2. “Free-Range”
The image that “free-range” conjures is practically a postcard: hens strutting across open meadows under a wide sky. The truth is legally and spatially much narrower. Free-range eggs and poultry come from cage-free birds that also have free access to the outdoors – but that access is typically a few small doors on the wall of a giant warehouse or aviary that leads to a small screened-in area with a cement or dirt floor, so it’s not exactly the open pasture you may imagine. The outdoor access requirement is loosely defined, and there are no minimum space requirements mandated per bird.
The terms “cage-free” and “free-range” are regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), but the meanings can be a bit misleading. A cage-free chicken should be able to freely roam a building, room or other enclosed area with unlimited access to food and fresh water. A free-range chicken should be able to also roam an enclosed area with unlimited access to food and fresh water, plus have continuous access to outdoors – which can be met with the inclusion of an open window regardless of whether the hen actually goes outdoors. While some food label terms and claims are legally defined and can only be used if specific rules are met, most of the food label claims you’ll see are completely unregulated and open to abuse. Recent research shows that even the regulated food label claims are not always properly policed or controlled.
3. “Multigrain”
Multigrain bread, crackers, and cereals are a staple of the health-conscious shopper’s cart, and the name gives a reassuring sense of nutritional variety. But “multigrain” is not the same as “whole grain,” and the difference matters enormously. A food labeled multigrain contains more than one grain, but there is no requirement that multigrain foods be made from whole grain flour. Therefore, multigrain foods are not necessarily minimally processed and may not be as good a choice as whole grain. Those extra grains could simply be refined versions stripped of the fiber and nutrients that make whole grains genuinely beneficial.
If a product just says “multigrain,” you have no way of knowing which grains are included and whether they are nutrient-rich. It may say “made with whole grain,” but that can be unclear because we don’t know what percentage of the food product is whole grain and what percentage is refined grain. Refined grain is processed and stripped of nutrients. Many breads and crackers are even made with caramel coloring so they look darker and can be thought to contain a higher content of grains or be healthier. The only label worth trusting here is one that explicitly says “100% Whole Grain.”
4. “Uncured”
“Uncured” deli meats and hot dogs have become a popular choice for people trying to eat more cleanly, with many assuming that “uncured” means the product is free of the nitrates and nitrites linked to health concerns. That assumption, however, is misleading. Cured deli meats and hot dogs are preserved with synthetic nitrates and nitrites, which may raise the risk of some cancers. But all “uncured” means is that the meat is preserved with celery seed powder or another natural source of nitrates and nitrites. The preservation process is nearly identical; only the source of the preserving compound changes.
“Uncured meats aren’t better for you,” says Amy Keating, RD, a Consumer Reports nutritionist, “because synthetic and natural nitrates and nitrites have the same effects on the body.” Some of the terms on the front of food packages aren’t regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, which oversees nutrition and health labels and claims. “Manufacturers use colorful images, product names, and claims that give the food a ‘health halo,'” says Keating. “In some cases, the claims are factually true, but still can be quite misleading.” The “uncured” label is a textbook example of exactly that kind of health halo in action.
5. “Best By” / “Sell By” / “Use By”
Date labels on food packaging seem like the most straightforward information a consumer could ask for – a simple cutoff telling you when food is safe. The reality is that these labels are neither standardized nor safety-focused in most cases. Research shows that many consumers incorrectly believe that date labels indicate the date after which food is no longer safe to eat. In reality, date labels are most often a manufacturer’s estimate of a product’s optimal quality. Some products carry a “sell by” date, which is used to inform retailers about stock rotation but can mislead consumers.
The scale of the confusion is significant and measurable. A 2025 nationally representative survey found that consumer confusion around food date labeling led 88 percent of consumers to discard food near the package labeling date at least occasionally. According to ReFED, a nonprofit focused on food waste solutions, opaque dates led to 1.45 million tons of household food discarded in 2023. No national uniform system for food date labeling exists in the U.S., and in the absence of federal law, states enforce a variety of inconsistent date label regulations. Both FSIS and FDA recommend that food industry members voluntarily apply the “Best if Used By” food date label, which notes the date after which quality may decline but the product may still be consumed – an approach specifically aimed at lessening consumer confusion and reducing wasted food.
