Many organic food brands are not exactly what they claim to be. Some unscrupulous farmers label their agricultural products as organic just be able to sell them at premium prices even if they do not really practice sound organic farming practices. Failure on the part of the farmer to practice sound organic farming practices may lead to contamination of the food products thus these food products can no longer be called organic.
To make sure that you are eating real organic food, you should always look for the USDA organic seal next to the organic food brand name. Note that only those organic food brands that pass the stringent requirements of the USDA are allowed to use the USDA seal on their labels.
What Does the USDA Organic Seal Tell Us?
According to the rules and regulations issued by the United States Agriculture Department, before an organic food brand can be classified as 100 percent organic, it must pass through trick standards of inspection. All the ingredients used by a certain organic food brand must be certified as organic before that organic food brand is allowed to use the words 100% organic.
On the other hand, before an organic food brand can use the organic to describe its products, the ingredients used in the food products must be 95% certified as organic. This means that if the food producers want to add non organic ingredients such as minerals and vitamins into their food products, they must make sure that such minerals and vitamins do not exceed 5% of the total composition of the food products.
In the event where the organic food products fall below the 95% mark, these products can no longer be referred to as organic. At most, it can only be referred to as made with organic ingredients.
Why is It that Organic Food Brands with the USDA Seal are More Expensive?
Organic food brands that bear the seal of the USDA take longer to produce. Note that without growth hormones and without any chemical additives that promote growth, most agricultural products take a lot of time to grow.
Moreover, farms that are certified as organic cannot use chemical pesticides, herbicides and antibiotics to protect their crops and livestock thus it is often doubly difficult to product agricultural products in these farms compared to those conventional farms. To help these organic farms stay in business, the USDA allow them to sell the products at premium prices.