Production

An organic product is something that has been produced or collected according to the standards of organic produce; e.g. organic oats or organic wild bilberries, but products that have been industrially refined can also be organic. The starting point of all organic produce is that all its ingredients are organic, but as this is not always possible there are strict conditions for organic produce which state what ingredients, additives and processing aids can be used.

For products to be marketed as organic, 95% of their agriculturally-based ingredients must meet organic standards. The remaining 5% can be regular products, but only if there is no organic option. These permitted non-organic ingredients - which are few and far between - are listed in the EU's organic regulation appendix. When organic ingredients comprise at least 70% of the total the organic ingredients can be mentioned in the ingredients list of the product. In this case the product itself cannot be called organic.

The use of additives in organic produce is severely restricted, with only 10% of the 300 additives approved for regular food being allowed in organic produce. The majority of the approved substances are compounds which occur in nature, such as fruit acids, agar-agar and pectin. The use of genetically modified organisms in organic produce is completely banned, as is the radiation of food, which is a routine practice in regular spices and seasonings. As chemical preservatives are not used in organic produce, it is especially important to ensure that they are stored correctly.

The whole food concept is very close to organics in its way of thinking. This method aims for a minimal amount of processing and for ingredients to be used in their whole form so that their nutritional values remain as high and as natural as possible. For instance, in baking, wholegrain flour is used and unrefined sugar, unprocessed syrup and honey, or fruit juice concentrates are used instead of granulated sugar. In this way the end result is closer to its natural form and still contains as much as possible of the original ingredients' vitamins, minerals and other protective substances as they have not been 'cleaned' away. This concept of whole food is not regulated by organic standards in any way, rather it depends more on the choices made by the manufacturer and the consumer. Some technological methods are however prohibited, such as radiation, the hydrogenation of fat, and the modification of starch.