Showing posts with label organic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label organic. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

How to determine that a particular product is Organic?

Question

So what is enough to find on a product (label or else) that makes it truly organic (regulated by USDA). Is "organic" itself means this and it is restricted to put this word on any product that is not organic?

Answer

The USDA does regulate a notion of "organic" in the US. Here's their full page on organic certification. Many of the links there are quite relevant. The best one for you is probably the labeling for consumers page, though many others would be informative for you . The Organic Labeling and Marketing Fact Sheet contains more details about labeling restrictions, and the National Organic Program page contains further links including the actual regulations.

In terms of labeling, as described in the linked page on labeling, yes, the USDA regulates the usage of the USDA organic seal:

Look at the label. If you see the USDA organic seal, the product is certified organic and has 95 percent or more organic content. For multi-ingredient products such as bread or soup, if the label claims that it is made with specified organic ingredients, you can be confident that those specific ingredients have been certified organic.

Unfortunately many other people do have their own notions of what organic means, and if you see the term used without the seal, then you can't really tell what standards it was held to.

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Difference between natural and organic

Question

For products such as bread, state they are either natural or organic, what is the difference?

Answer

Natural is purely a marketing term, and it is essentially meaningless since it isn't regulated by the USDA (I'm assuming you are in the USA, I can't speak for other countries). Since the term isn't regulated (with the apparent exception of meat), any manufacturer can put it on any (non-meat) product that they want, weather it is actually "natural" or not.

Organic is well-defined by the USDA and places a number of restrictions on the types of pesticides and other chemicals that can be used to grow the crop. For things like meat, the organic label regulates both the drugs that the animal is given as well as the production of the feed.

Certified organic food products are regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and produced by farmers and manufacturers under a strict set of rules. But the agency defines the term "natural" only for meat and poultry. In the rest of the food industry, the meaning is largely up to the producer.

See: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2009-07-10/business/chi-natural-foods-10-jul10_1_organics-or-least-chip-popular-horizon-organic-brand-organic-industry-watchdog-group