Testing May Help Verify Foods Labeled Organic.

Organic foods command premium prices at the supermarket, and wherever there is extra money to be made there is a possibility of fraud. Most organic producers adhere to certification standards, but there is little if any product monitoring at the retail level. So an unscrupulous producer could substitute a conventional food for an organic one. After all, organic milk doesn't look any different from ordinary milk, right? Not to a consumer, perhaps, but to a food scientist there are differences. Now a researcher in Germany has demonstrated the feasibility of laboratory testing to determine whether a carton of organic milk is what it says it is. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]