How to find if tomato is organic ?

[Newchromatographer]

Hi there ,
I do apologise if I post this in a wrong place and also if this question is far below your level but I really ask to know and gain some knowledge , so thank you in advane for your help.

How to find if tomato is organic? this require knoweldge in agriculture science or soil science while I am chemist or analyst who spend years to learn how to develope method or draw some reaction mechanism but because nowdays everthings involved in every things this require great knowlege in everythings .

If someone come to your lab and bring some tomotoes for analysis and said find out if it is organic ? ( here which analyte or element you analyse and why ? ) , same example apply to :

How to find if the honey is original " from the bee to you and the factoey didn't make it up " ?

how to know if the woman is pregnanet when they bring to you her blood and urine sample ?

I knew that when you ask me about tomato if it is organic or not I will measure nitrogen only in these tomato but is it really enough and why I only measure nitrogen ? organic or inorganic etc

Is there any books or papers told us about something near this like to find out "" plplpl measure the content of this and this"" etc etc ? as sometimes it is difficult to read many books to analyse something to take decision.

Not sure If I deliver what I want correctly .

Thanks again for your help

[Don_Hilton]

There may be limits of pesticides etc for organic produce, but pesticides will be found even in organic produce. Organic starts with a legal definition, which includes growing practices. You will need to check the legal requirements for "organic" in your area. At best, in the labororatory you can only prove (from levels of chemicals above reguatory limits) that the tomato is not organic.

[R13]

There is no way to detect "organic". And never will be. That would be like telling from the blood test if a person is living in Washington or Los Angeles. Or trying to analyse the T-shirt to find out if it was transported by airplane. "Organic" is not a property of the product - it is the way of "treating" the plant or animal.

This is the reason why organic farming is based on farms certification and checks of the production process.

There are some methodologies to assign geographical identity based on isotopic pattern of the elements (if mineral water is really from that spring, wine originates from particular location, 100% juice was diluted using tap water or has added sugar, etc.) - which is very expensive.

Theoretically You could do "all the pesticides, heavy metals, contaminats etc." tests at a cost, say 10000 USD per sample. Would that person bringing you a couple of tomatoes like to pay that price (and of course a couple of tomatoes would be not sufficient to complete the analysis)?

[lmh]

So putting together Don_Hilton's reply, and R13's, you may not be able to prove that a tomato was produced under organic conditions, but you can certainly prove that it wasn't, if you find traces of pesticides not approved by organic organisations. Also if it claims to have been produced in California but its heavy isotope ratios look more appropriate for Brazil, you can probably ignore every other promise on the label too!

This is an important area in consumer protection, and plenty of places are actively working on it.

R13 is right that a paper-trail helps. So do other non-chemical techniques: Honey may contain identifiable pollen grains (where I live in the UK, a honey producer was prosecuted a while back because his "local" honey contained nearly 100% Eucalyptus pollen).

Google is your friend. Try some searching. Incidentally, there's also a lot of literature on methods to find out whether products have been bulked-up by addition of other products: try looking for authenticity of fruit-juices.

[MaryCarson]

What they say is true--that "organic" tomato claim is supported by a paper trail, not a laboratory analysis. However, I do vaguely remember hearing about a residue scandal some years back--gentamicin being found in "organic" beef (gentamicin isn't approved for cattle use at all in the U.S.....)

On the other hand, a lab analysis will tell you if that anonymous honey has been adulterated, and may even tell you which country it came from if it hasn't been filtered.

And of course, blood tests for pregnancy have been used for decades.