Food Label Grain Terms: Multi-Grain, Whole Grain, and Organic

Food labels have improved significantly over the years, but they still cause a lot of confusion. This article discusses three commonly misunderstood terms that are often used with grains products. The terms are organic, whole grain, and multi-grain. The term organic is also used many other types of food, such as vegetables, meat, and dairy products, but this article only discusses it as it relates to grains.

Organic Grains - When a raw grain is labeled organic, it means the grain has been grown and transported without the use of artificial pesticides, chemicals, and other additives, but, natural pesticides may still be used. Both the grain and the land it is grown on must be organic for the ingredient to be certified organic. As a side note, when dealing with foods like meat, there are also requirements for additives, such as hormones, which do not apply for grains.

When it comes to foods labeled as organic, there is some room for manufacturers to add in non-organic ingredients. If every ingredient in a product is certified organic (excluding water and salt), the package can contain the words "100 percent organic." If non-organic ingredients are included, different terminology must be used. When 95% of the ingredients are organic, the product can be labeled as organic, but not 100 percent organic.

However, that leaves 5% of the product that can be made up of ingredients that are non-organic and potentially unwanted and unhealthy. Products that do not reach the 95% organic requirement can instead be labeled with the phrase "made with organic ingredients," if at least 70% of the ingredients are organic. Organic products can still have added ingredients you don't want to consume, so you should always read the label to know what you are getting.

Whole Grains - A food is considered a whole grain when all parts of the grain are included and kept in the same proportions as they exist in nature. A grain has 3 different parts: the endosperm, bran, and germ and if any one is missing or the proportions are wrong, then the ingredient cannot be labeled as a whole grain. Refined products typically only contain the endosperm and are usually missing the bran and germ, which are healthy sources fiber and other nutrients.

Many refined ingredients will often be "enriched," although this sounds better than it actually is. Nutrients are are removed from the grain during the refining process, but some nutrients can be added back later, which makes the product enriched. Unfortunately, enriched products almost always have more nutrients removed then they have added during the enriching process, so the net result is an inferior product. Also, the added nutrients may be of poorer quality than the ones that were removed in the first place.

Multi-Grain - This term is fairly self-explanatory, but people often think it means more than it really does. When a product has multi-grain on the label it simply means that more than one type of grain is included in the ingredients. There is a common assumption that the grains are whole grains, but multi-grain only refers to the number of grains and it has no bearing on the quality of the grains in the product.

If a product is made with regular white flour and white rice flour, both of which are refined, it is still a multi-grain product because it has two different types of grain. Whole grain and organic products can also be multi-grain if they have multiple whole grains or organic grains, but much of the time these products do not even have multi-grain on the label, because it is not as important as the labels of whole grain or organic.

For instance, the Kashi brand has the tagline "The Seven Whole Grain Company" and they have a trademarked combination of whole grain ingredients including wheat, rice, oats, triticale, barley, rye, and buckwheat. These are all whole grains, so any product with these ingredients is by definition multi-grain, but multi-grain is not printed anywhere on the product, because it is almost a meaningless term when it comes to health.

Companies often use the term multi-grain on products to make them sound healthier than they are, especially when the product contains poor quality refined grains. If a company has the choice between listing a product as organic, whole grain, or multi-grain, they will give the terms organic and whole grain a higher priority. Multi-grain is often used when neither of the other terms applies to the product.

If you buy a lot of packaged products and want to find grain products with the highest quality, it is best to look for products that are organic and made with whole grains. These products are naturally more expensive, especially when it comes to packaged products, so if you want to save some money, the best combination of health and value can be found when buying whole grain products with minimal unhealthy added ingredients.

On the other hand, if you don't mind cooking, you can get some great deals on raw grains even when they are organic. Bulk organic whole grains, such as brown rice, oats, wheat, etc., are sold at many stores and they are often less expensive than packaged products containing inferior quality grains. The trade off is they take some extra preparation, but if you don't mind the extra effort, they are a healthy and economical way to go.

References:

1. Division of Dockets Management (HFA-305), Food and Drug Administration, Docket No. 2006D-0066 - http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/dockets/06d0066/06D-0066-EC6-Attach-1.pdf

2. United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Marketing Service, National Organic Program http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/getfile?dDocName=STELDEV3004446

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