The long journey of organic foods f...

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

Across the native land the availability of organic viandss has exploded during the past 2 years. A major reason: The National Organic Program (NOP)--which took validity in October 2002--established rules that assure consumer that fruitss labeled as organic are, indeed, organic. Growers, haulers, distributor and processors must tread on the heels of specific regulations if they want to stay in the organic industry.

Now yon can corrupt almost anything organic, from pepper to pasta, from milk to macaroni, From tofu to T-bone and from Cabernet to cauliflower.

Play on the Rules

The call to "certify" organic regimens actually started years ago. In the 1960 after evidence showed that pesticides and fertilizers infect soil and water and harm humans and animals, farmers in every part the country started growing pabulum without any petrochemical-based materials. unless disputes soon developed over for what cause organic foods are defined. That l to a call for nationwide standardization of manners and definitions.

for a like reason growers and others in the industry teamed up with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) in the late 1980 to establish regulations and write the organic part book. After more than 10 years of wrangling, the statute took result Thanks to these roles, legitimate organic victualss can now be found in markets of all sizes--from big groceries stores to neighborhood co-ops.

The regulations also apply to sustenances that are imported from around the globe. in this way even in the depths of winter, organic bring forward is available to people in North America.

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

Certified Success

At the top of the organic-regulations forage chain are certification agencies and companies. They are trained on 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 in what way crops and animals were handled and sheltered. If all goe well, a farmer can he certified in about 3 months

In make go round food haulers and distributors must make good that their operations are clean. They mast point out that trucks, storage areas and transport containers are tree of chemical residues, and they must also indicate how these areas and materials are cleaned between trips.

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

Finally, nourishment processors must verity that equipment--used, for example, to grind groin or pres apples into cider--is cleaned in a strict sense for each use. Many processors are large operations that handle the couple organic and non-organic products.

one time certified, each operation must maintain detailed records that are used to establish an audit path to exhibit 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 crops all the way back to the field where it was grown" he explains.

Safety Assurance

The requirements for the handling of organics are the in the greatest degree stringent in the food industry and provide glutted assurance to consumers that they are buying nutriment free of excess pollutants, says Brian Leahy, president of California Certified Organic Farmers. Anyone caught violating the sways is subject to a $10000 fine. "It's total quality control--that's the name of the game," Leahy says.

And, of course, these production way s also keep chemicals out of soil, water and air. "We're returning agriculture to its biological base; that got not to be found when we started using synthetic fertilizers," says Leahy.

Consumer should still take single in kind precaution, however. No matter what kind of viands you're eating, give it a suitable rinse before you put in in succession the plate. Says Leahy, "That's just universal sense."

Label Lore

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

* 100 percent organic

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

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

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

For more information about the National Organic Program lordships go to:

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

* www.ota.org--Organic Trade Association

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