A Study of Organic Food Labeling In the United States Compared to Denmark
Organic farming practices produce foods that avoid manufactured fertilizers, pesticides, growth regulators (GMOs), and livestock additives. The definition of what is considered organic in the United States is that 95 percent of the ingredient list must be free of synthetic additives and must not be processed using industrial solvents. The goal of the study was to compare organic labeling and certification between the United States and Denmark. The hypothesis is that labeling and regulation will be similar because the food economy is built on a global scale. Researching organic labeling was required in both the United States and Denmark. A study of one food item from each section of the US food pyramid was completed. Then, labeling data was collected in both Danish and American grocery stores. The work required visiting three grocery stores in both countries. The results were organic labeling requirements are different in the US and Denmark. Denmark has a much more stringent level of organic certification, store labels of studied products confirm these differences. The study demonstrated that organic labeling, is very complicated in both the US and Denmark, and there is not a common standard of organic labeling and certification between these two countries.