If a food imported from another country into the U.S. says it's organic, can we really trust that it's organic?

When I talk about organic foods in my book, The World's Healthiest Foods, and on our website (whfoods.org), I am talking exclusively about foods that have been certified as organic under the U.S. Organic Foods Production Act of 1990, or, in some cases, about food that has been certified organic under state law in one of the more active "organics states" in the U.S. (like California). I am very confident that the level of heavy metals and other contaminants in federally certified organic food in the U.S. is far lower than the level found in non-organic food.

All food imports or food ingredient imports into the U.S. must meet the national organics standards in order to be certified as organic in the U.S. The importing of organic ingredients is becoming more and more common in the U.S. since the supply of domestically grown organic foods is not presently keeping up with the increase in demand. Companies that sell organic food bars, for example, may run out of organic almonds for their bars and look to another country"like Spain" to supply those organic almonds. The source of the almonds in the food bar does not matter, however, in terms of the organics regulations. As long as the National Organic Standards Board in the United States Department of Agriculture is certifying the food in question as organic you can trust the quality of the ingredients, whether imported or produced domestically.

However, this situation is slightly different when food exporters in other countries want to have their products arrive in the U.S. as already having been certified as organic by certification agencies in their own country. In this case, food exporters have the option of working with the USDA and their own government to have certification agencies in their own country designate products as organic. While I currently still recommend imported organic products that have been certified in other countries, I can see how greater problems in quality control might occur under these circumstances.

The importing of high quality foods from other countries is going to be an important topic as we move forward since the growing demand of organics is causing "outsourcing" of organic food production to other countries. I hope that concerns about these issues will prompt regulators and other interested parties (like the Organic Trade Association or the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements) to press for additional testing and other verification processes that will help to ensure a stringent definition of organics as a trustworthy "label" on food regardless of country origin.

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