Written by Abbot’s Butcher

As healthy eating trends are on the rise, more consumers are looking to fully understand the products they’re buying, and are specifically seeking out foods with wholesome, recognizable ingredients. The clean label concept isn’t a scientific or federally defined term—instead, clean label refers to products with a few simple ingredients that are natural, ethical, and minimally processed.

Foods with overflowing labels listing items with unrecognizable, complex names lead customers to wonder what they’re actually eating. Now, companies are starting to listen to their audiences and work toward manufacturing foods that are both good for the body and easy for shoppers to comprehend. At the heart of the clean label trend is transparency—consumers want to trust brands to be ethical in their product sourcing, and to be honest about the ingredients they’re using in their recipes.

It’s one thing for a company to claim its product is healthy, but it’s another to have a plain, clear label that backs it up. Products with clean labels help customers decide if the food fits within their own personal standards of health and wellness.

The clean label movement also focuses on keeping companies accountable and stray away from unnatural flavors and nutrient-poor items. Artificial flavors and synthetic chemicals are generally unrecognizable in labels to the average consumer, and can bring up red flags in terms of a product’s quality and health benefits.

Shoppers want to see ingredients that can be found in an everyday kitchen, not complex names referring to ingredients they can’t intuitively understand. Natural, simple foods are healthy and essential, and help fight inflammation by avoiding highly processed foods that irritate the body and immune system.

Because many vegan eaters are label-conscious, Abbot’s Butcher plant-based proteins are deliberately crafted with whole, clean ingredients. Customers deserve real food, so all the Abbot’s Butcher meat-alternative products are harvested from non-GMO yellow peas and free of synthetic chemicals, gums, and additives. 

Clean label foods generally contain fewer ingredients than typical products, so consumers looking for a clean label lifestyle place more importance on the nutrients’ quality, rather than quantity. With labels, less is definitely more—food made with unrefined, pure ingredients pack more of a nutritious punch than complicated products brimming with potentially harmful materials.

Abbot’s Butcher plant-based proteins—including the Slow Roasted Chick’n, Savory Ground “Beef,” and Spanish Smoked “Chorizo”—contain only a handful of ingredients. But each ingredient is thoughtfully chosen, drawing on simple foundations to create savory, flavorful foods that don’t sacrifice taste for health. You can find Abbot’s Butcher products at your local Mother’s.

Overall, clean label advocates hope to create a shift in the consumer-brand relationship. When companies are upfront and ethical about their ingredient lists, customers have the ability to be better informed about the food they’re taking in.