Organic Food, Diet, and Nutrition

The use of the word “organic” is growing in the world of health care, manufacturing, and food production. This particular word has certain restrictions, especially in the food industry, and any product claimed as organic has restrictive criteria to be certified. In developed countries, certain legal definitions exist in addition to the general idea of what it means to be organic. In the United States all organic certified products are regulated by the federal government through the USDA.

In the United States, the consumption of organically grown products is now the hottest trend in the world of food. Sometimes demand exceeds supply, thus creating organic food ingredient shortages in the food market. For example, the makers of the Clif Bar had to travel to Spain to find organic almonds for its bar because the supply of almonds in the United States was already accounted for by other companies. Organic food manufacturers require raw organic ingredients and import them from places like Bolivia, South Africa, Europe, and Venezuela; the United States imports more than it exports.

The main quality of organic food is that it is produced in a natural way without chemical bug killers, inorganic fertilizers, animal hormones, or antibiotics with negative side effects. The percentage of the organic market in relation to the entire food industry is very limited, with only 2.5% of the total population certified organic. Knowledge of the benefits of eating healthy is increasing day by day resulting in a very fast growth rate and demand for organic food stuffs.

There are big supermarkets in the United States that are aware of the growing demand for this kind of food product, and blue chip companies like Safeway, The Kroger Co, Albertson’s, and Supervalu are selling their own brand of organic food. The internationally famous Wal-mart was predicted to double their production of organic food by this year 2007.