Introduction
Organic food from consumer point of view is a food which has been produced to a certain standard level to be considered as “natural” food.
Legally, it is not allowed to use any chemical materials such as conventional non-organic pesticides, insecticides, herbicides (a few of them may be allowed with strict regulations).
In contrast to conventionally treated livestock, it is forbidden to use antibiotics and hormones in animal feeds when organic method is followed.
Animals have to be kept in specific environments; for instance chickens should be left to feed and walk freely and have access to sunlight.
In order to comply with the Food Standard Regulations, organic foods are required to be labeled as “Organic”, “100% organic” or “made with organic ingredients” on the packages.
When a food product claims as “100% organic”, it means that at least 95% of the food content is organic and every legal standard has been followed to produce this product organically.
This would also provide reliability for the customers who would like to rely on the accuracy of these products.
However, consumers are likely to be confused when they would not notice sufficiently what labeled on the package and purchase them in rush or any other reason. For instance food products that contain at least 70% organic ingredients are legally allowed to claim “made with organic ingredients” on the package which may mislead the customers assuming that the whole content is made up of organic ingredients.
Although organic foods were popular in the early days especially among people with health-consciousness, but they were not so easy to find at the markets and only a limited range of organic foods were available.
As consumer demands for organic foods hugely increased, supermarkets decided to supply a wide range of organically produced foods.
Generally consumer demands for organic foods are due to the following
factors:
Health
Among the supporters of organic foods, many of them are interested because they are largely unprocessed or little processed foods.
In other words they can offer benefit of not / less containing hidden sugar, fat, salt, etc. that is normally involved in processed food products.
Furthermore, organic foods are believed to contain 50% more nutrients, minerals and vitamins than conventionally produced products (that are treated and processed tremendously). However the evidence to confirm this matter is quite sparse.
There is also a serious concern among the public about genetically modified foods. Since all certified organic foods should legally free from any genetically modified ingredients, concerned consumers may purchase organic foods to make sure of avoiding anything genetically modified.
Environment
According to many studies organic farming is less harming than conventional system due to the following reasons:
- Many synthetic pesticides and insecticides can be seriously harmful to environment (soil, water and wildlife).
Organic farms use no/little pesticides and chemical fertilizers and alternatively farming practices such as crop rotation and mixed planting are implemented to control pests and keep fertility to desired extent. - Organic farms are more beneficial than conventional farms in maintaining diverse ecosystems.
- Organic farms consume and produce less energy and waste materials e.g. using energy-saving technologies for packaging with biodegradable or recyclable materials. They also produce less effluent.
Taste
Generally people would prefer to consume organic foods because of their flavour as they taste desirably natural containing no/limited amount of preservatives, artificial colours and flavours and processed with fewer artificial methods like food irradiation, chemical ripening, etc.
Animal welfare
As a result of legally approved organic procedures, animals as well as environment would be kept and treated in certain conditions in which their welfare would be properly provided.
Therefore some of the organic food advocates would buy organic meats/meat content products for the above reason.
