Organic food ‘doesn’t taste any different to the rest’

A TASTE for organic food is all in the mind, research suggests.

Most consumers can’t tell the difference between ‘natural’ and the rest, according to a study. In a taste test, green enthusiasts insisted they could taste the difference.

But they ended up rating identical apples differently, simply because they had an ‘organic’ label.

Three‑quarters of households in the UK buy organic food – which is produced with‑out artificial methods and additives – and the organic market is worth more than £1billion a year. Sales of organic food in the UK are the second highest in Europe, with milk sales increasing by 4.4 per cent last year, in contrast to standard milk which fell by 1.9 per cent.

Researchers at the University of Delaware in the US asked volunteers to taste five slices of Gala apples. Among them were two labelled as local, or organic, while the remain‑ing slices were either cut from the same apples, or from a commercially grown one.

The volunteers were also asked to fill in a questionnaire about their own food pur‑chases and why they bought them.

The study in the journal Food Quality and Preference found that ‘being a supporter of locally sourced food did lead to a signifi‑cantly higher taste rating for the labelled version.’ Natural food store consumers also had higher taste ratings for both the labelled organic and local slices [compared to identical unlabelled].

‘Such shoppers may be considered to have a different value system and likely be more interested in issues such as sustainability, and thus have their taste perceptions shaped by the label information,’ said the researchers

Clare McDermott, of the Soil Association, said: ‘We know people buy organic food for a number of reasons, taste being one of them. A more tangible reason for why shop‑pers choose organic is the way that the products are produced.’