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Legislation is called for to safeguard the interest of consumers in quest for organic foods.
The Consumer Council supports calls to introduce specific regulation governing the production, certification and labelling of organic foods in Hong Kong.
Without such regulation, consumers are at the mercy of the unscrupulous in falsely claiming their food products to be organic when in fact they are not.
This is because organic foods could not be identified by their appearance or by chemical analysis of the products.
Consumers have to rely solely on the certification of organic products, i.e. the organic labels of the authority of the country of origin or certification bodies.
The possibility of abuse in claiming organic certifications cannot be ruled out in view of the great price differentials between organic food and conventional food.
In March this year, a vegetable stall owner pleaded guilty to a charge under the Trade Descriptions Ordinance of supplying vegetables that were falsely claimed to have organic authentication. The stall owner was fined $2,500.
In a recent survey conducted by the Hong Kong Organic Resource Centre, it was shown that only about 10% of the surveyed stalls (14 out of 149 stalls) in wet markets claiming to sell organic vegetables could provide organic certifications.
The rest were unable to produce any organic certification. The average price of vegetables sold in these stalls was generally less than $10 a catty.
This contrasted with the considerably higher price of vegetables with organic certifications sold in stalls at mostly $20 to $25 a catty.
The survey also showed that around 80% of these stalls also sold conventional vegetables. However, about 40% of them did not place the two kinds of vegetables separately, giving rise to the possibility of the contamination of organic vegetables by conventional vegetables during transportation, storage and selling.
Consumers are advised to choose organic food products that bear organic certification labels, ideally in individual packs with such labels.
Beware also of confusing wordings such as the absence or presence of certain materials (e.g. wild, natural, no chemical fertilizer, use of compost, etc.). Products with such attributes alone are not regarded as organically produced as the production of organic foods has to be in compliance with a set of operational standards.
According to the CODEX Guidelines for the Production, Processing, Labelling and Marketing of Organically Produced Foods, organic agriculture is a holistic production management system which promotes and enhances agroecosystem health, including biodiversity, biological cycles, and soil biological activity.
The primary goal of organic agriculture is to optimize the health and productivity of interdependent communities of soil life, plants, animals and people.
In brief, organic food differs from the conventional food in the way it is grown, handled and processed. Organic agriculture avoids using chemical herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers, while in livestock husbandry, antibiotic, growth hormones and chemical feed additives are not used.
So, are organic foods better in nutrient quality?
According to the experts, the results of various past studies comparing the nutrient quality of organic foods and conventional foods have been controversial with no consensus on the nutrient content superiority of organic foods.
Source: Consumer Council
The Consumer Council supports calls to introduce specific regulation governing the production, certification and labelling of organic foods in Hong Kong.
Without such regulation, consumers are at the mercy of the unscrupulous in falsely claiming their food products to be organic when in fact they are not.
This is because organic foods could not be identified by their appearance or by chemical analysis of the products.
Consumers have to rely solely on the certification of organic products, i.e. the organic labels of the authority of the country of origin or certification bodies.
The possibility of abuse in claiming organic certifications cannot be ruled out in view of the great price differentials between organic food and conventional food.
In March this year, a vegetable stall owner pleaded guilty to a charge under the Trade Descriptions Ordinance of supplying vegetables that were falsely claimed to have organic authentication. The stall owner was fined $2,500.
In a recent survey conducted by the Hong Kong Organic Resource Centre, it was shown that only about 10% of the surveyed stalls (14 out of 149 stalls) in wet markets claiming to sell organic vegetables could provide organic certifications.
The rest were unable to produce any organic certification. The average price of vegetables sold in these stalls was generally less than $10 a catty.
This contrasted with the considerably higher price of vegetables with organic certifications sold in stalls at mostly $20 to $25 a catty.
The survey also showed that around 80% of these stalls also sold conventional vegetables. However, about 40% of them did not place the two kinds of vegetables separately, giving rise to the possibility of the contamination of organic vegetables by conventional vegetables during transportation, storage and selling.
Consumers are advised to choose organic food products that bear organic certification labels, ideally in individual packs with such labels.
Beware also of confusing wordings such as the absence or presence of certain materials (e.g. wild, natural, no chemical fertilizer, use of compost, etc.). Products with such attributes alone are not regarded as organically produced as the production of organic foods has to be in compliance with a set of operational standards.
According to the CODEX Guidelines for the Production, Processing, Labelling and Marketing of Organically Produced Foods, organic agriculture is a holistic production management system which promotes and enhances agroecosystem health, including biodiversity, biological cycles, and soil biological activity.
The primary goal of organic agriculture is to optimize the health and productivity of interdependent communities of soil life, plants, animals and people.
In brief, organic food differs from the conventional food in the way it is grown, handled and processed. Organic agriculture avoids using chemical herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers, while in livestock husbandry, antibiotic, growth hormones and chemical feed additives are not used.
So, are organic foods better in nutrient quality?
According to the experts, the results of various past studies comparing the nutrient quality of organic foods and conventional foods have been controversial with no consensus on the nutrient content superiority of organic foods.
Source: Consumer Council
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