Organic food reccomendations

La Fenetre

Hi,

I've stated buying organic whenever I can, i.e. when the price difference is not too much extra, and I don't have to go too far out of my way to get it.

Surprisingly, I find Tesco's and Lidl pretty good for organic.

I'd love to hear other peoples product recommendations / tips.


Thanks !

La Fenetre

oops - recommendations was spelled incorrectly in the thread title, sorry.

TheGlitchKing

I would recommend sticking to food from farmer's markets as much as possible. When I see organic foods in places like tesco or other super markets I notice they seem to be browning quickly, or fresh beetroot will be softer or something like that. Still good for you but there's a world of difference there.

La Fenetre

TheGlitchKing wrote: »

I would recommend sticking to food from farmer's markets as much as possible. When I see organic foods in places like tesco or other super markets I notice they seem to be browning quickly, or fresh beetroot will be softer or something like that. Still good for you but there's a world of difference there.

To me that's a sign they haven't been artificially tampered with, nothing more, and if you don't catch them when they are fresh enough for you, buy them somewhere else. As for the markets, I know a couple of lads who sell "organic" at the farmers markets, and lets just say the bonefides would not be too reliable, to say the very least, but people who didn't know them or their farm would be none the wiser. I prefer to get mine from the source that's most reliable, convenient and value for money, and sometimes that's a market and sometimes that's a shop.

Rather than get into that pointless debate though, the actual idea of this thread was to see what specific product recommendations people had, rather than trying by trial and error every organic product and source out there, and there is more to organic than just local veg.

Macha

Well, if something has the organic label, it will have had to complied with the certification. Of course veg in a market someone just tells you it's organic is slightly different..

I'm generally slightly wary of own brand organic, eg Tesco organic because I think those companies just see organic as a marketing strategy for one segment of their customer base. But that may just be my own personal bias and nothing wrong with their organic products.

So looking at companies that fully embrace organic, Glenisk is a good brand of organic dairy and pretty available around the country. I see there's another one called Organic For Us but I've never tried it. Bunalun is another one that sells store cupboard basics like pasta. Biona is a similar UK brand.

I'd also say that any German organic products would be excellent - they take organic very seriously.

Personally, I always priorities organic meat and dairy products as I think they have a really big difference in production processes when compared to conventional.

La Fenetre

I find markets and supermarkets are all of variable quality, some products good, some not so good. Markets have the advantage of being local and fresh, supermarkets have the advantage of a wider product range for things other than just local veg, and have a greater obligation to certification / trade descriptions act.

Some of Tesco's organic products are actually pretty good, their mayonnaise being one example. Lots of companies have tried to jump on the organic bandwagon. The key is to always check the ingredients label, really good produce will have very very few ingredients other than ingredients in their natural form. e.g. some "organic" yogurt is "low fat" and add's a load of organic sugar to compensate as well as dozens of thickeners and acidity regulators. Sugar is worse than full fat anyday.

Glenisk's organic, very disappointingly, is actually not that great ingredients wise from memory, but check the ingredients yourself, and compare it to other organic yogurts. People buy organic for different reasons : taste, kinder to the environment, or some people are just interested in avoiding taking in too many pesticides, animal antibiotics, growth hormones etc. My primary reason for trying to buy organic whenever convenient and not too much more expensive, is to aid my health, and to eat as whole and unprocessed a food as possible, and if its kinder to the planet all the better.

You really notice when comparing label with label, which takes time initially, but once you've sourced a decent product, it's easy to get it again. That's why I thought this thread might be useful to swap recommendations.

As you say, some of the german stuff in ldl is good as well, they are a good source for organic milk.