How to check if a product is really organic

With more than 1 million Americans requesting the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to require a food label that stipulates whether the food has been genetically engineered, it’s hard to ignore the public demand for clarity on organic food labels. This is especially true after the “pink slime” controversy that’s been making headlines for the past month.

With this level of organic demand, many companies are falsely labeling products as organic and, since there’s no actual governing body that actively checks the validity of organic labels, it can be hard for customers to trust what they read. But, a March 2012 Chicago Tribune article has outlined the best ways to find trustworthy products by checking ingredients and looking for certifications.

“The more ingredients you see on a label, the more likely it is that chemicals are involved,” Eric Boyce – CEO of a natural laundry care company called Vaska – told the Chicago Tribune. “Our laundry detergent has eight ingredients. Brands with chemicals will often have more than 30.”

By checking the ingredients on the label, consumers can not only determine how many ingredients are included in the product, but also what those ingredients are.

Certifications are another important aspect of organic foods. Most brands will submit their products to organizations to certify them as organic. These certifications are usually displayed on food labels.

Caroline Freedman, the founder of NuturMe Organic Baby Food, told the Tribue that Kosher Certified is one example of a certifying organization that’s been established and has strict guidelines and standards. Another is Quality Assurance International (QAI), an organization that will test and certify a product as being organic and made with no pesticides or pollutants.

If small businesses like Freedman’s and Boyce’s want to design custom labels for their products to display their organic certifications or list ingredients, investing in a Primera LX-Series color label printer may provide the solution for that task.