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There are plenty of articles on the Internet about “fake organic” food from China. Obviously this concerns us at TCK since a few of our super foods, for example chlorella and goji berries, are grown there. So we did some digging. What we found was that there doesn’t seem to be any credible first-hand sources for most of the information quoted in these articles (which are often just a repetition of each other). However, there can be no denying that China has a reputation as a country with lax and corrupt safety standards.

So how can we be sure that TCK’s organic super foods from China are safe?

Firstly, the European Union Organic Standards have strict regulations on the content of heavy metal, microorganism and chemical residues. They must certify that any product sold as organic in the European Union meets these requirements, regardless of where it’s grown. So they carry out the necessary tests.

Secondly, the EU Organic Certification requires that the certification bodies must be recognised by EU Commissions. These are mostly subsidiaries of well-known and respected EU organic certification bodies.  For example, EcoCert, and CERES, the big German organic certification bodies, all have strong presence in Chinese organic market. Our France supplier’s Chinese organic products are certified by EcoCert and CERES and use existing EU organic standards to do the certification.

But the process begins long before the products arrive in Europe. The EU Organic Certification processes start with checking the agricultural management, pest control, watering, harvest, cleaning, testing, manufacturing, and distribution.

Each exported batch of Organic foods to the EU countries must be accompanied by a specific organic certificate issued by EcoCert or CERES or other EU recognised certification body, certifying that the products have matched EU Organic Standards. Also every batch of organic foods is accompanied by lab analysis results. Each manufacturer also keeps sample of every batch of organic foods, just in case there are future investigations.

TCK keeps in close communication with our France  supplier and has the utmost confidence in them. Indeed, one of the things that impressed us most about them is that they commission their own periodic testing to ensure all their products, including chlorella and goji berries meet the highest standards of safety.

The bottom line is that we can rest assured that the EU Organic certification process monitors and certifies the entire process – from how a food is grown or produced, to the content of heavy metal, microorganism and chemical residues.

Although China is experiencing pollution issues, it does not necessarily mean that everything that comes from there is polluted. In the case of our superfoods we can rest assured that the organic certification bodies are doing their jobs.