How Organic Food is Authenticated

USA: AUDIT TRAIL NEEDED TO AUTHENTICATE ORGANIC FOOD

The Good Food Advocate from Eden Foods

Sixty three percent of Americans think they are buying organic food, more
than ever before and growing. According to a recent study we are motivated
to Ogo organic' for several great reasons, including better health and
nutrition (66%), better taste (38%), food safety (30%), and benefit to the
environment (26%).

But is organic food really more nutritious, better tasting, better for the
environment, and safer than conventionally grown and produced food? If it's
authentically organic then the answer is "Yes!" because true organic food is
grown, handled, and processed with the utmost care and without pesticides,
herbicides, synthetic fertilizers, fungicides, fumigants, chemical
preservatives, dyes, chemical additives, irradiation, and/or genetically
engineered DNA.

Commercially, organic food is authenticated through an audit trail. This is
a series of systems (practices and documentation) by which each food can be
traced back to its specific source, where it was grown and by whom. The
organic audit trail was first used in Europe in the 1970s. In the late 70s
Eden's farmers asked us for clarification on practices and record keeping.
In 1983 Eden Foods, always pioneering organic food, traveled to Europe to
study every credible organic certification system there. These documents
were brought back to the United States and Eden had them translated at the
University of Michigan. These translated documents provided many and much
needed answers for organic farmers and stimulated the creation of the first
organic certification agencies in the United States and Canada and are now
incorporated throughout the USDA's National Organic Program. An audit trail
is a great deal of work and a great source of pride to each grower, handler,
and processor. All organic operations' audit trails are unique depending
upon type of food, geography, handling practices, etc. but they do have much
in common.

Audit trails start at the farm with detailed field maps showing farm layout,
boundaries, hedgerows, and buffer zones. Field histories show crop rotations
and include records going back a minimum of five years. Records kept on
seeds and samples of crops are especially important to assure that no
chemically treated or genetically engineered seed was used and that crops
were not polluted by Ogenetic drift' (cross-pollinization from neighboring
genetically engineered crops). An organic farm's audit trail also includes
storage records, water tests, certifier inspection reports, certificates,
records of communication with the farm's certifying agency, sales records,
and a lot number system.

Lot numbers are essential to the audit trail through every step of growing,
storage, transportation, handling, processing, and distribution. Each
organic food is assigned a lot number which follows it all the way through
to the distributor/ grocer. Having the lot numbers recorded on every
document a food can be traced from Ofield to shelf ' and back again.

What happens to an organic food once it leaves the farm is as critical to
its safety, quality, and organic integrity as is how it was grown. Following
is a summary of an audit trail kept by Eden Foods that tracks a package of
EDEN® Organic Kamut Spiral pasta. Thousands of similar audit trails are kept
and open to all of Eden's inspectors including their organic certifier, the
FDA, the Michigan Department of Agriculture, and inspectors from HACCP and
AIB (voluntary third party food safety and sanitation programs).

* Purchase order from Eden to the grower for whole grain kamut.
* Signed document showing the truck was cleaned prior to loading the
grain.
* Bill of lading with weight ticket and lot number (ships with grain).
* The farmer's current OCIA (organic certifier's) certificate.
* Eden's receiving log showing weight, lot number, and bill of lading
number.
* Eden's production log showing grain milled into bags of flour with
original lot number recorded and a date code assigned to the bags of flour.
* Bill of lading showing transfer of the bags of flour from Eden's mill
to the Eden Organic Pasta Company's production records show the bags of
flour (identified by their lot number) being converted into kamut spirals.
* Production report page 2 shows the number of cases produced and
assigned the date code/lot number, i.e. 92861; Julian date printed on the
packaged.
* Bill of lading and Eden's receiving log showing transfer of the cases
of Organic Kamut Spiral Pasta to Eden's warehouse.
* Eden's records then track where these cases where shipped.

Over 34 years Eden has created a dedicated network of family farms and
suppliers, nurturing more than 40,000 acres of family owned, organic
farmland. More than 200 Eden brand foods are available at discerning food
stores in the U.S.A. and Canada.

The EDEN brand means: no irradiation, no preservatives, no chemical
additives, no food colorings, no refined sugars, no genetically engineered
ingredients; just the safest, most nutritious, certified organically grown
food.

Contact: Tonya Martin, Marketing Department, Eden Foods, Inc., 701 Tecumseh
Road, Clinton, MI 49236. Voice: 970 254-1377 Fax: 970 254-1375 Main
Office: 517 456-742