Organic Tea vs Natural Tea: What’s the difference?

These days, grocery shopping looks like searching every aisle, scouring the shelves for the healthiest product option. In your left hand you end up holding one product, tea for example, labeled as “all natural.” And in your right hand you find Fraser Tea, labeled “all organic.” Though what really is the difference between natural and organic, and which is better?

What does natural mean?

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) defines natural, when used on food labeling, as meaning “nothing artificial or synthetic (including all color additives regardless to source) has been included in, or has been added to a food that would not normally be expected to be in that food.”

What this means is that natural products do not have artificial flavors added though there are no strict regulations or guidelines. The FDA does not speak on if “natural” addresses production methods or if it should describe health benefits.

“Natural” is often used as a marketing buzzword with companies instead of a promise. There is no universal or government backed certification for natural products.

What does organic mean?

Organic is defined by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) as “Organic is a label that indicates a food or agricultural product has been produced according to the USDA organic standards, which require operations to use practices that cycle resources, conserve biodiversity, and preserve ecological balance.”

USDA Organic is the only government backed claim for organic food in the U.S.

Having the USDA Organic Certification has different standards for different types of products. Fraser Tea is certified in the packaged good category meaning we have no genetically modified organisms (GMOS), all parts of the final product can be traced from farm to store, and there are no artificial colors, flavors or preservatives.

What’s the difference?

In short, a certified organic product is better than a natural labeled product. This is because being USDA certified organic requires meeting and maintaining set requirements and standards.

These standards guarantee a high-quality product with use of sustainable practices, lower environmental impact and no artificial flavoring.

A product labelled natural has no promise of any actual different standards or production techniques and is most often used as a marketing label to make a product seem healthier.

Beyond the product itself, the natural and organic labels look at the ingredients and flavors included in the final product as well.

The benefits of organic include verifiable certification, lower environmental impact and a product that is better for you.

Fraser Tea is a USDA Certified Organic Company

Fraser Tea is a USDA Certified Organic company. What this means for us is that we take care to maintain the standards of our USDA certification. This also means that you can trust that Fraser Tea products are free of artificial flavors, additives and GMOS.

This combined with our value of farm direct means that we work closely with the farms we source from. This allows you to trust that Fraser Tea is grown ethically and organically using sustainable methods.