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Making Sense of Organic Food LabelingOrganic food labeling informs you what you are getting with that product. But, it only works if you understand the rules. For instance... When you buy organic blueberry cereal, does that mean everything used to make it was organic? Or are the blueberries the only thing that is organic? There is a big difference between the two. So, let's go through the breakdown of the requirements. In the US, the Organic Food Production Act 1990 regulates organics and their labeling. In order to have the USDA (US Department of Agriculture) seal on a product, the product must be certified organic and contain at least 95% organically produced ingredients. There are two categories of labeling that are permitted to use the USDA seal. These are, 1. 100% certified organic ingredients. These producers may identify 100% organic ingredients on front label. 2. 95% or more certified organic ingredients. These producers may identify "organic" on front label. Of course, they would not say 100% organic on their label. These above two, are the only conditions where the USDA seal may be used. You may see two additional categories of organic labeling. 3. Containing 70% or greater of organically produced ingredients can be labeled on the front of the package saying "made with organic (whatever it is)". An example of this would be cereal with organic blueberries. In this example the label may say "made with organic blueberries". No seal is permitted. 4. Containing less than 70% organic ingredients may make no front panel claims. However, can list the organic ingredient as such on the side panel. For example, pasta sauce may say "organic parsley" in the list of ingredients. No seal is permitted. In Canada the Organic Products Regulations has a phasing in period for organic labeling which ends in December 2008. This would require 95% organic ingredients and organic certification to have the Canadian Organic logo on the package. Those products containing over 70% organic ingredients seem to cause the most confusion of all the organic food labeling. I have people tell me that they have bought some product organic, only to be surprised that they were getting organic blueberries (as in example 3. above). To sum up, a product must have at least 95% organic ingredients to be called organic and to be permitted to have the organic seal. If you don't see a seal, look carefully at the label to find out what exactly is organic.
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