Is your food REALLY organic? What to look for

HLN Money Expert Clark Howard

Unfortunately, there have been a number of cases where food producers have been able to convince the U.S Department of Agriculture to let them label foods as organic when they’re not.

Unless your food's 100% organic, there could be some nasty stuff in there.

There was an appointed official who overruled the staff at the USDA which allowed products to be sold as organic when they were not. Believe it or not, 90 percent of organic baby formula is not truly organic.

Organics are the fastest growing part of the U.S. food market. However, if you’re paying all that money for organic food, you may be paying it for nothing.

There is an investigation at the USDA inspector general’s office of all the problems with phony organic labels on food. It’s a shame that they’re 245 products labeled as organic that have non-organic ingredients in them. The story is just unreal.

A report from Consumers Union, the parent organization of Consumer Reports, says some organic foods have mercury and polychlorinated biphenyls! I mean this is ugly stuff.

But I wanted to tell you about a new standard that is supposed to help you figure out which foods are 100 percent organic.

If your food is truly 100 percent organic, food labels will have an ingredient list, name and the address of the handler, plus the name and seal of the organic certifier. Foods labeled as organic should have no chemicals, additives, synthetics, pesticides or genetically modified organisms or substances.

If the label does not say “100% organic”, then you’re buying something that is not entirely organic or not organic at all. So spending the money on it is fool’s gold.

It will become a clear delineation to people to which foods are organic and which foods are not. People who are savvy on distinguishing organic foods will insist on buying foods that are truly organic.