Farm to market: keeping organic foods safe and fresh - organics: all things purely organic

Better Nutrition, March, 2004 by Joe Lewandowski

The lengthy journey of organic foods from the field to your fork starts with a single step. Fortunately for consumers, the first step and every one after is carefully choreographed to assure that organic foods remain pure and are delivered fresh.

Across the country, the availability of organic foods has exploded during the past 2 years. A major reason: The National Organic Program (NOP)--which took effect in October 2002--established rules that assure consumers that products labeled as organic are, indeed, organic. Growers, haulers, distributor and processors must follow specific regulations if they want to stay in the organic industry.

Now yon can buy almost anything organic, from peppers to pasta, from milk to macaroni, From tofu to T-bones, and from Cabernet to cauliflower.

Play by the Rules

The call to "certify" organic foods actually started years ago. In the 1960s, after evidence showed that pesticides and fertilizers pollute soil and water and harm humans and animals, farmers throughout the country started growing food without any petrochemical-based materials. But disputes soon developed over how organic foods are defined. That led to a call for nationwide standardization of methods and definitions.

So growers and others in the industry teamed up with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) in the late 1980s to establish regulations and write the organic role book. After more than 10 years of wrangling, the statute took effect. Thanks to these roles, legitimate organic foods can now be found in markets of all sizes--from big grocery stores to neighborhood co-ops.

The regulations also apply to foods that are imported from around the globe. So even in the depths of winter, organic produce is available to people in North America.

Complying with the NOP roles is an arduous process for everyone in the industry, says Katherine DiMatteo, executive director of the Organic Trade Association. "It's not easy to get into organic production; companies can't get in quickly."

Certified Success

At the top of the organic-regulations food chain are certification agencies and companies. They are trained by the USDA to evaluate and certify the organic integrity of farms, distributors and processors.

A grower submits an application to the certifier that details the farming operation during the previous 3 years. The farmer must explain which materials were used in the fields and how crops and animals were handled and sheltered. If all goes well, a farmer can he certified in about 3 months.

In turn, food haulers and distributors must prove that their operations are clean. They mast show that trucks, storage areas and transport containers are tree of chemical residues, and they must also show how these areas and materials are cleaned between trips.

Organic products cannot be hauled with non-organic products at the same time in the same vehicle. Many haulers--especially those carrying milk and grains--dedicate specific trucks foil organic produces.

Finally, food processors must verity that equipment--used, for example, to grind groin or press apples into cider--is cleaned properly for each use. Many processors are large operations that handle both organic and non-organic products.

Once certified, each operation must maintain detailed records that are used to establish an audit path to show how everything moves from the farm to the retail store, explains Eric Sideman, director of technical services for the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association. "Basically, with this audit trail, you can trace any product all the way back to the field where it was grown," he explains.

Safety Assurance

The requirements for the handling of organics are the most stringent in the food industry and provide full assurance to consumers that they are buying food free of excess pollutants, says Brian Leahy, president of California Certified Organic Farmers. Anyone caught violating the rules is subject to a $10,000 fine. "It's total quality control--that's the name of the game," Leahy says.

And, of course, these production methods also keep chemicals out of soil, water and air. "We're returning agriculture to its biological base; that got lost when we started using synthetic fertilizers," says Leahy.

Consumers should still take one precaution, however. No matter what kind of food you're eating, give it a good rinse before you put in on the plate. Says Leahy, "That's just common sense."

Label Lore

There are three levels of labels that can be used for organic foods:

* 100 percent organic

* Organic--at least 95 percent of the ingredients by weight are organic.

* Made with organic--contains 70-95 percent organic ingredients.

Products that contain less than 70 percent organic ingredients can list individual organic ingredients in the ingredient panel on the label.

For more information about the National Organic Program rules, go to:

* www.ams.usda.gov/nop--US Department of Agriculture National Organic Program

* www.ota.org--Organic Trade Association