[Followup to this post.] Julie from Bolthouse farms emailed me today, saying that “The unexplained carbohydrate is coming from the natural flavor added to this product. We are and will remain in compliance with all applicable regulations regarding our products.”

In my opinion, it’s misleading, if not just plain wrong, to advertise a product as having “No Added Sugars” (as Bolthouse Farms does here) when it contains unspecified ingredients (“natural flavor”) that add 15-20 grams of sugar–the amount in 3-4 teaspoons of table sugar. It seems to me especially at odds with what Julie expressed as the company’s goal: “to provide our customers with healthy, nutritious and good-tasting products designed to provide genuine and legitimate options for those individuals wishing to improve or enhance the overall quality of their diets.”

For the record, the FDA, which regulates food labeling, defines the term natural flavor as follows (link):

The term natural flavor or natural flavoring means the essential oil, oleoresin, essence or extractive, protein hydrolysate, distillate, or any product of roasting, heating or enzymolysis, which contains the flavoring constituents derived from a spice, fruit or fruit juice, vegetable or vegetable juice, edible yeast, herb, bark, bud, root, leaf or similar plant material, meat, seafood, poultry, eggs, dairy products, or fermentation products thereof, whose significant function in food is flavoring rather than nutritional.