Single page view Reprints Post Comment Text size: Federal meat regulators this month are soliciting public comments on a label they believe will better define "natural" meat. The label, dubbed "naturally raised," would attest that a cut of meat came from an animal free of antibiotics and growth hormones.

Here's a comment from Urvashi Rangan, a senior scientist at Consumers Union: "It's not quite as bad" as regulators' definition of "natural" itself.

Ouch. Welcome to the complicated battleground over a seemingly simple word. "Natural" is an increasingly important claim to American consumers searching for healthier food.

Yet the word has long had a fuzzy regulatory definition, a condition that's increasingly under fire and not only from advocacy groups such as Consumers Union, but from some foodmakers, too, including several chicken producers and Downers Grove-based Sara Lee Corp.