What you can say when marketing organic 2020 - Flipbook - Page 31
What you feed farm animals and
how you treat them affects the
quality of the food. The hard work
organic farmers put into caring
for their animals pays off in the
quality of the food they produce,
giving real value for money.
Helen Browning, CEO of The Soil Association
Nutritional Differences
Following the three major meta-analyses which looked into the nutritional differences between organic
and non-organic crops, meat and dairy, we have worked closely with the team at Newcastle University and
have sought legal advice to establish whether it is possible to make advertising claims in relation to the
results, which demonstrate significant nutritional differences.
However, whilst organic milk and meat do contain up to 50% more omega 3 fatty acids, these fail to
meet the minimum requirements needed to make a nutritional claim for these products, which requires
organic milk to not only provide much more omega 3 than non-organic milk, but also to supply 30% of the
Required Daily Amount of omega 3, which it does not. For milk, this is due to the lower fat content (around
4% for whole milk). We will continue to work with researchers to ensure we evaluate each study as it is
released to establish whether we can make nutritional statements on a product by product basis.
We can, however, make the following statements:
• Organic farming affects the quality of the food
we eat
• Organic is different
• “What you feed farm animals and how you treat
them affects the quality of the food. The hard
work organic farmers put into caring for their
animals pays off in the quality of the food they
produce, giving real value for money.”
• How we farm affects the quality of the food we eat
• The difference in Omega 3 is because organic
animals eat a more natural, grass-based diet
containing high levels of clover - clover is used
in organic farming to fix nitrogen so that crops
and grass grow (instead of manufactured/
chemical fertilisers)
– Helen Browning, CEO of The Soil Association
31