San PietroLAB

Natural Product

In the last few years the interest for vegetable ingredients has grown more and more. This as the result of the increasing activity and popularity of several movements which strive hard to get rid of animals testing.

Frequently the use of the adjective “natural” as a synonym of “ vegetable”, and thereby of “harmless” (having a firm hold on consumer), does not reflect in the reality the finished product.

According to recent legal interpretations, the meaning of the adjective “natural” can freely be ascribed to vegetable, animal and mineral derivatives, as long as the different methods of mining, refining, gathering etc… do not transform the background material into something else, completely unrelated.

The expression “ the natural vegetable is harmless and respects the surrounding” is often not very precise: first of all, the exploitation of some global resources leads to consuming (and taking advantage of ) extended territories, and so the ecological character of these operations are very questionable.

To disprove the axiom “vegetable=harmless” the examples are numerous. The recommendation of swallowing the hemlock, or the amanita, would produce a lethal effect, but also eating products derived from “biological” farmings , not certified, increases the risk of introducing vegetable toxins cancer-causing , included as natural pesticides (vegetables produce substances harmful as self-defence against animals, virus, bacteria or other vegetables).

(To be continued…)