Consumers are quite rightly cautious when it comes to what they put in or on their bodies, whether that is the food they ingest or the cosmetics they put on their skin. Nobody wants to damage their health by taking in something harmful.
Unfortunately, in the mind of many consumers, often fuelled by media scare stories, chemicals have come to mean 'bad', while the term 'natural' equals 'good'. How many marketing campaigns claim that their products are free from 'harmful', 'toxic' or dangerous chemicals and proudly declare 'free from artificial flavourings, colourings and preservatives'?
But the desire for 'natural' products may be lulling people into a false sense of security. Preservatives in products are there for a reason, after all: they prevent the growth of organisms, both those that are potentially toxic as well as those that shorten the shelf-life of the product and lead to increased waste.
While the risk profile of preservatives is carefully assessed, preservative-free products rely heavily on the consumer to maintain them in optimum conditions. Exposure to warm, moist conditions, such as those found in the average kitchen or bathroom, can encourage the growth of bacteria that go unnoticed by end users of the product.
Much has been done to make consumers aware of the risks of food poisoning caused by poor hygiene or bad practice in the kitchen. But to date, no such warnings have been widely publicised regarding 'natural' cosmetics and toiletries.
Perhaps more appropriate would be to question the concept of what is 'natural' and what is a 'chemical'. If a food label listed among the ingredients the following: E300; E306 (Tocopherol); the colourings E163a, E163b,E163e, E163f and E160a; and the flavourings ethyl ethanoate, 3-methyl butyraldehyde, methylparaben, E321, E1510, E300, E440 and E421, the average consumer would believe it to be packed with 'artificial' chemicals.
In fact, these are some of the ingredients of the all-natural blueberry.