Originally published September 27 2005
Organic foods taste better than standard processed choices, poll reveals
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
When people resist the notion of eating healthy, they usually cite poor taste as a reason, but Food Navigator reports that a recent poll by the Soil Association shows that most people who buy healthy food do so to avoid pesticides and additives, but more than 70 percent of respondents also say they prefer the taste of organic foods over processed foods.
Organic farming is associated with the non-use of artificial chemical pesticides, herbicides and fertilisers, helping to keep toxins out of air, water and soil.
And while the poll of 813 people showed 95 per cent of respondents are buying organic to avoid pesticides and food additives; taste, it would appear, is equally important.
According to their poll, fruit and vegetable scored particularly high on taste, with 72 per cent of respondents saying they taste better than non-organic.
Meat also scored at the top, with 71 per cent saying they preferred the taste of organic meat.
"A recent survey by the UK government's DEFRA found that after taste and health, locality was the third driving force for consumer purchases of organic foods," says Simon Wright, a consultant on organic foods.
While structural barriers exist in building up sources of organic ingredients, gains could be maximised by UK suppliers playing to the strengths of the country's climate.
Obvious as this seems, they can not compete on organic vanilla or organic tea, but they can on brassicas, vegetables, high protein wheat for bread, for example.
According to Wright, British Sugar has just pulled out of the UK organic market because of a lack in demand.
The EU regulation recognises that it is not yet possible to make products entirely from organic ingredients.
As a result the manufacturer can use up to 5 per cent of certain non-organic food ingredients and still label the product as organic.
However, genetically-modified ingredients and artificial food additives are never allowed in organic foods.
For foods which contain 70 to 95 per cent organic ingredients, the word organic appears only in the ingredients list, and as a description on the front of label to show the percentage of ingredients which are organic.
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