@240B
Or whats in there thats not readily detectable. Are organic almonds necessarily detectable from non-organic? Even if B&J think they are buying organic their supplier might be switching things out.
But you're right, nobody likes to think about weed killer in their ice cream. I can see a new flavor coming. Round Up Chocolate Almond Fudge Jimsonweed
@driftdiverThis represents my own reading of several various articles on the subject of 'organic' and what it means.
From my memory, the 'organic' crazy began sometime in the 70s as a result of several reported contamination incidents in which produce and fruit contained unacceptable levels of pesticides and herbicides such as DDT. It started out as a genuine, honest, grassroots, movement. However, it was fraught with problems.
People were getting sick from organic produce because it was not properly cleaned and it was generally riddled with pests. Since organic produce is grown in actual organic manure, if it is not thoroughly sanitized, there can be problems. Organic producers learned over time how to produce and sell their product safely but it was very expensive.
That brings us to today. The 'organic' label exploded over the last couple of decades. Today the term 'organic' is similar to 'fat free' or a 'Lite' product. It has become more of a marketing term than it is a real guarantee. There are monitoring organizations which are supposed to monitor and actually certify something as genuinely organic, but there are tens of thousands of products today claiming that they are organic and not that many staff to handle it. So, organic this, and organic that, everything is suddenly organic, and who really knows?
To answer your question, from what I have read, there is no chemical analysis way to determine if a product is organic or not. It is just a matter of either actual real 'certification' or blind trust. And while there were real problems with chemicals in produce 40 to 50 years ago, those issues have been resolved in modern day agriculture practices. Furthermore, the nutritional benefit of organic verses non-organic food items is speculative and is not certainly proved.
Ben and Jerry's was just riding a fad 'organic' wave. And by sheer bad luck, it came back to bite them. We shall have to wait to see if they decide to re-brand their image or what they do to try to recover from this crisis.
