USDA Bureaucrat Questions Safety of Organic Food

From: Organic Food Quality News

12/17/02

by: Shane Heaton

USA: Murano's surreptitious criticism of organic food safety unwarranted The organic movement may be right to view statements from the USDA under secretary for food safety Elsa Murano's recent comments at the World Food Prize symposium as unwarranted criticism of organic food safety, disguised as reasonable and simple statements of fact. Paraphrased: Bacteria and parasites are all-natural. Not having preservatives will cost you something.

The challenge for the food industry, especially those not using preservatives, is to make sure that it will not reduce product safety. All true, though as ever the media read between the lines and simplified her message: "USDA: Organic foods may be more contamination-prone" and "Consumers should be wary of organically grown foods - USDA". When Murano stated "Foods that have fewer or no preservatives [i.e. organics] can pose a challenge to consumers", what exactly was she implying? E.coli? Mycotoxins? Food spoilage? Food poisoning? All of the above?

The problem with this assertion is, as the USDA under secretary for food safety should know, that apart from often repeated yet baseless claims of Dennis Avery and co, there is no evidence whatsoever that organic food poses a greater safety risk to consumers. This question has been extensively investigated and the outcomes consistently give organic food a clean bill of health. Regarding the specific claims made that organic food is a greater E.coli risk, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation has concluded "organic farming potentially reduces the risk of E.coli infection" (2).

Both the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) and the Royal Agricultural Society of England (RASE), neither organisation known for it�s advocacy of organic food or faming, agree that there is no evidence to support the assertion that organic food is less microbiologically safe than non-organic food (3,4), the FSA agreeing with the FAO that organic practices are likely to lead to reductions in pathogen levels (3). A survey conducted by the UK Public Health Laboratory Service of over 3000 ready-to-eat vegetables confirmed this, finding no evidence of dangerous microbes that cause disease in humans, "indicating that overall agricultural, hygiene, harvesting and production practices were good"(5).

Despite these assurances, organic certifying agencies constantly review standards for composting and are able to respond to developing knowledge in this area of food safety. Regarding mycotoxins, the FAO statement "it cannot be concluded that organic farming leads to an increased risk of mycotoxin contamination" (2) concurs with FSA view that "there is no evidence to indicate that organically grown food is more prone to mycotoxin contamination than conventionally grown food. (3). If Murano has evidence not assumptions that organic food truly is a safety "challenge to consumers", let's see it.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, UK Food Standards Agency, Royal Agricultural Society of England and others should all see it too, as they've all concluded that there is none. If Murano doesn't have any such evidence, it would not be unreasonable to ask her to qualify her comments and state her full evidence-based view of organic food and food safety, thus putting to rest accusations that this is another example of her "track-record of making statements that suit the interests of giant agri-biz" (6) timed to counter positive press surrounding the launch of the USDA's national organic program. (http://www.organicts.com)

SOURCES:
(1) see www.fass.org/fasstrack/news_item.asp?news_id=787 (2) FAO, 2000, Food Safety and Quality as Affected by Organic Farming, Twenty-second FAO Regional Conference for Europe, Porto, Portugalk, 24-28 July. See www.fao.org/docrep/meeting/X4983e.htm (3) Food Standards Agency UK, 2000, position paper: Food Standards Agency View on Organic Foods (4) Williams CM, Pennington TH, Bridges O & Bridges JW, 2000, Food Quality and Health, Shades of Green - a review of UK farming systems, RASE, p73-90.. (5) Public Health Laboratory Service, 2000, The microbial examination of Ready-to-eat Organic Vegetables from Retail Establishments, June, UK. (6) see http://ngin.tripod.com/usda.htm