Journal
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF FOOD SCIENCES AND NUTRITION
Volume 63, Issue 4, Pages 393-401Publisher
INFORMA HEALTHCARE
DOI: 10.3109/09637486.2011.629602
Keywords
Potatoes; organic food; mineral content; retail market study
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Funding
- Office of Research and Creative Work, Brigham Young University
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Whether or not all foods marketed to consumers as organic meet specified standards for use of that descriptor, or are nutritionally different from conventional foods, is uncertain. In a retail market study in a Western US metropolitan area, differences in mineral composition between conventional potatoes and those marketed as organic were analysed. Potatoes marketed as organic had more copper and magnesium (p < 0.0001), less iron (p < 0.0001) and sodium (p < 0.02), and the same concentration of calcium, potassium and zinc as conventional potatoes. Comparison of individual mineral concentrations between foodstuffs sold as organic or conventional is unlikely to establish a chemical fingerprint to objectively distinguish between organic and conventional produce, but more sophisticated chemometric analysis of multi-element fingerprints holds promise of doing so. Although statistically significant, these differences would only minimally affect total dietary intake of these minerals and be unlikely to result in measurable health benefits.
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