Organic food fraud leaves a nasty taste in the mouth

The level of malpractice extends to producers passing off food as organic and the use of incorrect or unregulated certification.

Concerns are now growing that consumers are paying inflated prices for organic produce that is no different to regular foodstuffs.

The revelations follow the first major investigation of its kind by trading standards officers into the problem. An inquiry in Richmond, south-west London, found a number of traders were wrongly selling food as organic.

Two traders have since been prosecuted for wrongly labelling food as a result of the investigation. A butcher in Richmond was fined more than 6,000 for falsely labelling food as organic. He claimed he never intended to mislead his customers.

In another case, a farmer in Somerset was convicted of food-labelling offences and using organic certificates with the wrong accreditation.

The organic food industry has grown dramatically and is now worth 1.12 billion per year, a ten-fold increase over eight years.

All of Britain's major supermarkets have burgeoning organic sectors, while a number of small, specialist organic outlets have emerged to feed the growing trend.

In Scotland, there are fears over the impact on the sector of unscrupulous practices and the effect on public confidence. James Withers, of the National Farmers Union in Scotland, said serious organic producers could suffer because of fraud.

"Any mis-labelling is a serious problem," said Mr Withers. "If we have organic packages on the shelves that aren't organic then that puts organic farmers at a real disadvantage because they need the extra premium that organic products give in order to cover their costs.

"If there's other food being passed off as organic and it is being sold cheaper then that puts the genuine guys at a real disadvantage."

John Sleith, a spokesman for the Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland (REHIS), said: "It's an important issue and one which we as environmental health officers [EHOs] take seriously. We take samples of foods to laboratories for analysis to make sure they contain what they say on the label."

Mr Sleith said organic foods were tested to make sure they did not contain pesticides and EHOs look for retailers to have the right documentation if products display accreditation labels, such as those of the Soil Association.

A spokeswoman for the Food Standards Agency in Scotland, the industry's watchdog, said: "We are not aware of any major cases going on at the moment but there may be smaller cases that have not been brought to our attention."

THE GUIDELINES

TO QUALIFY as "organic", food must meet strict standards laid down by the European Union and incorporated into British law.

Growers, processors and importers selling organic food must be registered with organic-certification bodies, which in turn are regulated in the UK by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).

There are ten such bodies in Britain, including the Soil Association and the Scottish Organic Producers' Association, which regularly visit farms to check fertilisers and pesticides being used are approved for organic use.

Food must be made from at least 95 per cent organic ingredients to carry an organic label.

The standards set by the Soil Association cover all aspects of agricultural food production, for most items grown or farmed to be eaten or drunk. Examples include rules for chicken farmers covering the number of birds that can be kept together, what they can be fed and how they can be treated if ill.

Standards also extend to the processing of food, including the milling of flour, baking of bread and the making of pizzas.

More than half of the certified organic farmland in the UK is in Scotland.