PrepTest 131, Section 2, Question 5
Gilbert: This food label is mistaken.(42 more words not shown)
Which one of the following,(7 more words not shown)
- AThe cookie company(9 more words not shown)
- BNot all chemicals(12 more words not shown)
- CThe label was(15 more words not shown)
- DMany other foods(12 more words not shown)
- EAll substances except(12 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
What is supposed to be wrong with the label? A food label could misstate calories, protein, or the presence of an allergen. Gilbert's complaint turns out to concern something else: the meaning of 'natural.' The label says all the ingredients are natural, yet the company manufactures these alphahydroxy acids chemically.
Does manufacturing a substance mean the substance can't be natural? The same substance might also occur in the wild. Sabina tells us that these acids occur naturally in sugarcane. But we still have a question: are the factory-produced acids natural because that substance occurs in nature, or does being natural depend on how these particular acids were obtained?
What we’re looking for
Gilbert and Sabina are relying on different ways of drawing that line. To strengthen Sabina, I want a rule saying that a substance counts as natural if it occurs naturally somewhere. That would let the sugarcane example answer Gilbert's objection about the manufacturing process. Information about nutrition wouldn't settle this dispute about classification.
Working the answers
- A
Dropping the acids from the ingredients changes the cookies under discussion. It doesn't support Sabina's reason for calling the acids in these cookies natural. A later recipe change doesn't establish that the challenged label accurately described the cookies containing synthesized acids.
- B
Some manufacturing chemicals might never end up in the finished cookies. But Gilbert expressly says these cookies contain alphahydroxy acids. A general fact about other chemicals doesn't remove those acids or establish whether they are natural.
- C
This could explain how an outdated label remained in use after a recipe change. Explaining a possible mistake doesn't show that the label is accurate. Sabina still needs a reason the synthesized acids qualify as natural.
- D
Other companies using 'all natural' labels on foods with synthesized ingredients doesn't establish that any of those labels are correct. They might face the same objection Gilbert raises. We need a rule for what counts as natural, not more examples of the disputed labeling practice.
- ECorrect
Unpack 'all substances except those that do not occur naturally in any source.' Substances that do occur naturally somewhere are included among those considered natural. Alphahydroxy acids occur naturally in sugarcane, so they qualify under that rule. Their manufacture at a factory therefore doesn't defeat Sabina's claim that they are natural ingredients. E supplies the definition her response needs.
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