Organic food 'healthier'
Scientists conducted their research on kiwifruit
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Monday, 26, Mar 2007 08:50
New research conducted in the US has claimed that organically grown food is healthier than its conventionally grown counterparts.
Tests on organic kiwifruits revealed the crop had "significantly increased" levels of polyphenols, a healthy compound found in red wine and coloured berries.
The scientists from the University of California Davis campus say their research is among the "most comprehensive and definitive studies of its kind to date".
Their assertion is based on the fact they conducted tests on kiwifruits grown under both methods at a single farm, meaning both set of crops matured under the same environmental conditions.
According to the research, published today in the Society of Chemical Industry's magazine Chemical and Industry, the organic kiwifruits also had higher levels of vitamin C-containing ascorbic acid and antioxidants.
But Carl Winter, director of the FoodSafe programme at Davis, dismisses his colleagues' findings by accusing them of failing to determine whether the extra nutrients in the organic kiwifruits actually had any "appreciable health perspective".
"The authors also did not look for any plant secondary metabolites of potential toxicological impact," he goes on to write.