Professor Brian Ratcliffe: What's on the menu is lifestyle, not nutrition

GENERALLY speaking there is no nutritional advantage to organic baby foods compared with conventional produce.

An independent review commissioned by the Food Standards Agency published last year showed this and concluded there are no additional health benefits for organic food.

Much of the published evidence shows that there is more variation in nutrient content relating to the variety of vegetable or fruit or cereal, the season, the soil, and region of production than whether or not it is from "organic" production.

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Both organic and conventionally produced foods have to meet the same legal food safety requirements. So the decision to feed infants "organic produce" is a lifestyle choice rather than a nutritional one.

Parents may be concerned about the safety of pesticide residues in foods that are not "organic", which is mainly produced without using pesticides although EU regulations permit a very limited range of pesticides. However, limits were set in September 2008 on how much pesticide residue can legally remain in food whether organic or conventional.

Often organic products are more expensive than the conventional equivalents and it would be up to parents to consider if extra cost is justified.

It is probably more important to ensure that the diet is nutritionally adequate for children's healthy growth and development.

• Professor Brian Ratcliffe is professor of nutrition at Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen