Ready to add organic food to your shopping list, but not sure how to tell if what you are buying is really organic? Do not worry; You’re not alone.
Mastela says to keep in mind promising but empty buzzwords. “Food companies can put a lot of words and pictures on their packaging to make it look healthier, even though a lot of them mean nothing,” he says. Your tip? Look for the USDA organic label on your food and don’t get carried away with sweet words like “natural” or “made with real fruit” or “reduced sugar” when shopping for packaged foods. Sometimes those words may not carry much weight.
According to the USDA, for a raw or processed agricultural product to be considered 100% organic, all ingredients must be certified organic, all processing aids must be organic, and the product label must state the name of the certifying agent. This is why you may want to consider the USDA organic label as the gold standard.
However, to be labeled “Organic”, the product must contain at least 95% organic ingredients. And if an article says “Made with organic products,” that means it contains at least 70% organically produced ingredients. In this case, verbiage matters!
.