Clean Label Redefined: Consumers Judge Ingredients, Not Process

One in five consumers who avoid ultraprocessed food are eschewing specific ingredients, not the processes behind them. That figure, from research by Innova Market Insights presented at an Oct. 28 Food Dive event, explains why CPG food brands keep struggling to formulate for health and wellness — and why the struggle is partly self-inflicted confusion.

The core problem: nobody, including shoppers, agrees what "clean label" means. It can mean short ingredient lists, or the absence of anything perceived as artificial. And as more companies flirt with claims like "nonultraprocessed," the term is getting murkier, according to Mimi Bonnett, senior director of Insights for Innova Market Insights.

What do consumers actually want?

Not what marketers assume. Innova's research shows consumers link clean labels to natural ingredients, not processing methods. Claims like no artificial colors, flavors and preservatives signal "clean" to shoppers.

"Fundamentally [consumers] are equating clean label with nothing that they don't recognize," Bonnett said at the virtual event. "So things that they can easily pronounce or actually understand, or maybe even have in their pantry themselves. [They're] not necessarily looking for something specific in short, but things that they don't have to be worried about."

The word "processed" sits inside "ultraprocessed," but the process itself is irrelevant to the purchase decision. "'Processed' is in the term, but it's not about the process at all," Bonnett said. "In fact, consumers don't really understand the processes that foods go through, so they're really using those same ingredients to drive that decision."

Her verdict on shopper psychology: consumers are more certain about what they do not want than what they want. There's also murkiness about where food comes from, which means the more clarity companies add about ingredients — clean label or not — the better.

Why reformulation is harder than it looks

Removing unfamiliar-sounding ingredients is not a strategy. "It's not as simple as just taking things out," said Jay Bunte, senior director for Ingredion's global product portfolio corn and clean label texture solutions. "Unfortunately, if that were the case, a lot of things would taste a lot worse, and the eating experience would suffer. So every ingredient that is on a label is there for a purpose, whether that's stability or texture or shelf life, or process tolerance."

Ingredients like titanium dioxide, datum or monodisaccharide look intimidating on a label but perform real functions. Replacing them with natural options that do the same job is difficult and demands reliable supply chains, Bunte said.

Shorter lists help, but only so far. "Fewer ingredients certainly can be a useful signal of simplicity," Bunte said — yet ingredient count alone is "a poor measure of how clean a food is." The type of ingredient matters more than the tally.

What does this change for formulation teams?

Three practical pressure points emerged from the event:

• Texture first. Texture is often the first attribute to break in a clean label reformulation, making it the first thing a consumer notices.
• GLP-1 math. Consumers on GLP-1 medications want nutrient-dense, minimally processed foods, raising the formulation bar. "When you think about these products that are super protein dense and fiber dense, they become really hard to formulate with," Bunte said, because they can be gritty, chalky or dense. Clean label texture solutions can deliver a creamy, indulgent experience in a smaller, nutrient-dense portion.
• Cost doesn't have to rise. A customer used a clean label texturizer in yogurt to cut reliance on expensive dairy fat, lowering overall reformulation cost. "What's really important is not just the ingredient cost, as it's only part of the equation," Bunte said. "It's really important to be laser focused really on cost and use."

The takeaway for food makers is straightforward, if unglamorous: function, taste and cost-in-use have to survive the label edit. Shoppers won't forgive a clean label that eats like chalk.