When many people see a label that says organic, they tend to interpret this as a clear sign that the food is both safer and more nutritious than a conventional product. But an organic label doesn t guarantee safety or greater nutritional value, as the results of a new Dartmouth study emphasize. The study focused on organic brown rice syrup a sweetener found in some foods, including certain infant formulas, cereal and energy bars, and high-energy foods consumed by athletes.
The researchers purchased these food products some of which contained organic brown rice syrup and analyzed them for levels of arsenic. The results, published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, may come as a surprise to those who consider organic to be superior products: The foods that contained organic brown rice syrup actually had significantly higher levels of arsenic than those that did not use the syrup. In fact, the two infant formulas that listed organic brown rice syrup as the primary ingredient contained levels of arsenic over 20 times higher than the other infant formulas.
Brown rice syrup may be particularly susceptible to arsenic contamination since rice easily absorbs this chemical, which can be found in groundwater. Yet ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan points out that even the levels found in the samples tested in this study should not concern the average consumer.
ACSH's Dr. Josh Bloom remarks that the irony of this story is the hypocrisy of the organic food industry. They add a sweetener that sounds healthy because it s organic, but in reality it contains more arsenic than regular sugar does.
People keep forgetting that organic labeling has nothing at all to do with nutritional value or safety, ACSH's Dr. Ruth Kava points out. Yet consumers continue to think that if it s organic, there can t be anything wrong with it.
