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'Insecticide' allegedly found in LaCroix is not harmful to humans

A popular example of an all-natural product is LaCroix Sparkling Water, which names only carbonated water and natural flavors as its ingredients. Carbonated water speaks for itself, but natural flavors is a bit more confusing.

Lately, people are obsessed with food touting “free-from” labels like sugar-fee, gluten-free and the jackpot, “all-natural.”

The FDA actually doesn’t have a formal definition or rule for the term “natural,” but it does consider it to mean that nothing artificial or synthetic was included in or added to a food that you wouldn’t normally expect it to have.

A popular example of an all-natural product is LaCroix Sparkling Water, which names only carbonated water and natural flavors as its ingredients. Carbonated water speaks for itself, but natural flavors is a bit more confusing.

The LaCroix website says its flavors are derived from the natural essence oils extracted from the named fruit used in each of the LaCroix flavors. It also says there are no sugars or artificial ingredients added.

A new-class action lawsuit is disputing that claim, stating LaCroix contains synthetic ingredients limonene, linalool and linalyl propionate. According to PubChem, that National Institute of Health’s public database, all of these are naturally occurring chemicals, they just don’t occur naturally in LaCroix.

Limonene, linalool and linalyl propionate are all extracted from plants and are commonly used to add fragrance to foods. Certain amounts of these chemicals can be toxic to animals, but aren’t considered poisonous to humans.

An “all-natural” label can be misleading or far-fetched at times, but that doesn’t mean you need to worry that your water is going to kill you.

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