Thaindian News

London, July 30 (IANS) Don’t place too much value on organically grown food — they are nutritionally no better than food grown with synthetic chemicals, says an exhaustive new study.
Consumers are willing to pay more for organic food based on their perceived health and nutrition benefits. The global organic food market was estimated in 2007 to be worth $47.4 billion.

Some previous reviews have concluded that organically produced food has a superior nutrient composition to other food, but there has to-date been no systematic review of the available published literature.

Researchers from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) have now completed the most extensive systematic review of the available published literature on nutrient content of organic food.

Alan Dangour, nutritionist at the LSHTM and study co-author, said “our review indicates that there is currently no evidence to support the selection of organically over conventionally produced foods on the basis of nutritional superiority.”

Over 50,000 papers were searched, and a total of 162 relevant articles were identified that were published over a 50-year period up to Feb 29, 2008. The nutrient content of organically and conventionally produced foodstuffs was compared.

Researchers found organically and conventionally produced foods to be comparable in their nutrient content. For 10 out of the 13 nutrient categories analysed, there were no significant differences between production methods in nutrient content.

Differences that were detected were most likely to be due to differences in fertiliser use (nitrogen, phosphorus), and ripeness at harvest (acidity), and it is unlikely that consuming these nutrients at the levels reported in organic foods would provide any health benefit.

These findings were published in the Thursday edition of The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.