Organic food is expensive, but it's different. Can we believe it?

Organic vegetables, organic rice, organic eggs.

Nowadays, the prices of all kinds of organic food are expensive, but they are different. Please take a look at the survey conducted by our reporter in depth in the market.

Organic food, can we believe it?

Confusion between true and false: is organic food easy to recognize?

The concept of organic food is vague, and most consumers do not know the specific difference between organic vegetables and ordinary vegetables.

"Organic vegetables are vegetables grown without pesticides or chemical fertilizers." Gao Mingyue in Lubei District, Tangshan City, Hebei Province usually pays attention to food health problems and has higher requirements for vegetables eaten in daily life. "I occasionally go to big supermarkets to buy organic vegetables, mainly because I feel healthier than ordinary vegetables."

Recently, I heard that there was an organic life experience restaurant in front of my house. Ms. Gao thought it was very fresh and immediately asked some friends to taste it. "the environment of the restaurant is mainly green, with pictures of all kinds of vegetables hanging on the wall, and there are posters introducing organic restaurants and organic food as soon as they enter the door."

According to the restaurant manager, this organic life experience restaurant has just opened, introduced the world's advanced biological low-carbon agricultural technology, and set up its own demonstration farm to produce organic food. The restaurant adopts the method of "direct supply of organic food", which is distributed directly from the production farm to the restaurant. As in the trial phase, the current price of "organic vegetables" is not much different from that of ordinary vegetables, "I hope to promote organic restaurants through price concessions."

However, Ms. Gao learned that at present, the restaurant can only ensure that the vegetables used are organic and that grain and meat are still ordinary food. Ms. Gao also has doubts about whether the restaurant serves organic vegetables. "there are a lot of customers in the restaurant, but everyone comes here with a taste of fresh water. we don't know whether they are eating organic vegetables or not. after all, it is only the seller's own statement."

It is difficult for consumers to tell the true from the false, and many salespeople are not familiar with organic food. The reporter randomly visited some vegetable markets and supermarkets in Beijing. Organic vegetables with logos are not found in most vegetable markets and small supermarkets. When the reporter found the shopping guide in the supermarket and asked if there were any organic vegetables on sale, they first pointed to several kinds of green vegetables in a corner, saying that these were. When the reporter asked again why these "organic vegetables" were not marked, they also said that they might not be organic vegetables, and there was no sale here.

Most consumers do not know what is the difference between organic vegetables and ordinary vegetables. "even if they are so-called organic vegetables, they should be carefully washed and soaked when they are bought." Ms. Gao said.

"when buying organic food, I mainly look at whether there is a round 'organic logo' on the packaging of the product, but I have heard that many organic certification marks can be bought for money, so I am not very sure about the authenticity of this kind of logo." Ms. Gao said that salespeople always talk about organic food, but there are always doubts about whether organic food is true or not. "I've also bought organic rice and eggs, but they don't taste good either. If you buy it once, you don't want to buy it. "

Price is on the high side: is organic food worth it?

The near-"sky-high price" figure deters many consumers; the price difference between the price and ordinary vegetables is so great that it is not worth buying organic food.

"I usually go to the vegetable market near the neighborhood in the morning to buy fresh vegetables. after all, organic vegetables are too expensive to afford." Fan Lin, a resident in Chaoyang District, Beijing, told reporters that organic food is healthier after listening to the publicity, but the price of organic food is too high and vegetables are necessary every day. After weighing, they still choose ordinary vegetables.

At a Wal-Mart store in Chaoyang District, the reporter noticed that vegetables were generally divided into three areas, namely, ordinary bulk vegetables, packaged green vegetables and organic vegetables, which were specially stored in freezers, while the other two were just placed on ordinary shelves.

The reporter carefully compared the prices of vegetables and found that there was a big difference between organic vegetables, green vegetables and ordinary vegetables. For example, ordinary carrots are 0.98 yuan per jin, round eggplant is 2.5 yuan per jin, green vegetables are 6 yuan a box of two carrots, round eggplant is 7 yuan a box, while organic vegetables sell carrots for 25 yuan per box, each box contains only 3 carrots, and round eggplant costs 25 yuan each. The figure of almost "sky-high price" deters many consumers, and there are very few customers near the organic vegetable selling area.

"these vegetables are sold on a case-by-case basis, and they are all packed. Just scan the code directly." Supermarket staff told reporters that even if consumers know something about organic vegetables and know that organic vegetables are better than ordinary vegetables, the high price is still unacceptable to most consumers.

When we opened the web page to search for organic food, the reporter saw that many websites selling organic food were beautifully designed and offered different things, such as organic vegetables and fruits, meat, poultry, eggs and milk, grain, oil, rice noodles, aquatic seafood and other foods. some websites also provide tasting experience, customer picking and other activities, the price of organic food is still high.

In the interview, the reporter learned that the authenticity and price of organic products are the two main points that consumers are most concerned about. So why are organic vegetables so expensive? Is it really good value for money?

Mr. Kong, a salesman for an organic food company in Chengdu, told reporters that the production cost of organic vegetables is higher than that of ordinary vegetables. "the company has many special production bases, such as Chengdu and Xichang. The soil and water sources of the base should be monitored at least once a year, and sampling tests will be carried out many times a month. 109 agricultural residue scans and 5 heavy metal monitoring for each variety will cost more than 500,000 yuan for the whole year."

Mr. Kong said that not only the cost of the production link is high, but all links after picking, including transportation, primary processing and distribution, should not be polluted and need to be strictly checked, so the price is naturally more expensive.

"Organic vegetables mainly play the health and safety card, but consumers have a scale in their hearts. The price difference between organic vegetables and ordinary vegetables is too much, so it is difficult to be attractive." Fan Lin said.

Nutrition misunderstanding: what is the good thing about organic food?

There is no difference in nutrition between organic food, green food and conventional food, but there are strict restrictions on pesticide residues, food additives and genetically modified ingredients to ensure the natural state of food.

"Green vegetables and organic vegetables are often seen in supermarkets. Apart from being healthier, are these vegetables more nutritious than ordinary vegetables?" Wang Xian, a consumer in Yuexiu District of Guangzhou, has been confused about all kinds of "certified" vegetables on the market.

According to industry experts, organic food should be produced naturally, processed without pollution, have a complete production and sales record, and be certified by the National Organic Food Development Center under the Ministry of Environmental Protection. It eliminates the use of chemical substances, non-natural genetically modified species, radiation, hormones and other unnatural production methods, and avoids safety risks such as agricultural residues, artificial additives, antibiotics and so on. Green food is allowed to use pesticides and fertilizers in the production process. But on the whole, there is no difference in nutrition between organic food, green food and conventional food. For example, there is not much difference in trace elements between organic vegetables and ordinary vegetables. In essence, organic food only has strict restrictions on pesticide residues, food additives and genetically modified ingredients in the mode of production to ensure the natural state of food.

In September this year, the State recognition and Supervision Commission issued the report on the Development of China's Organic Industry. The report shows that over the past 20 years, China's organic industry has developed rapidly. by the end of 2013, China had a total certified organic production area of 2.722 million hectares and a total of 7894 organic production enterprises. organic products cover plant, animal, aquatic and processing products. The person in charge of the State recognition and Supervision Commission said that in recent years, the State recognition and Supervision Commission has successively revised and issued the National Standard for Organic products, the rules for the implementation of Certification of Organic products and the measures for the Management of Certification of Organic products, etc., to implement the whole process management of the cultivation, production, packaging, certification and sale of organic products, and to implement the traceability management of organic codes of "one product, one code" for organic products. Make China's organic industry enter the development track of standardization and legalization.

Although the state has promulgated many rules and regulations for the organic industry, and the National Accreditation and Supervision Commission also inspects the certification bodies of organic food every year, the level of certification bodies varies. There is still a phenomenon that some certification organizations give the green light to substandard food in order to make money, and it is not uncommon for all kinds of "small workshops" to apply for certificates illegally. All these have caused great harm to the healthy and orderly development of the organic industry market, but also cast a shadow on consumers' impression of organic food, spending a lot of money but may not be able to buy real health and safety.

"it is hoped that the relevant state departments will further standardize the production and publicity of organic food, strengthen the enforcement of standards, let consumers really understand organic food, and can choose trustworthy organic products according to their own economic conditions." Wang Xian said.