Nutritional quality of organic foods: a systematic review

In the citing paper

“Compared with conventionally grown foods, organically grown foods can contain higher concentrations of phenolic compounds and fewer pesticide residues; yet, they also have similar nutrient profiles in many other respects.124-126”

In the citing paper

“Compared with conventionally grown foods, organically grown foods can contain higher concentrations of phenolic compounds and fewer pesticide residues; yet, they also have similar nutrient profiles in many other respects.124-126”

In the citing paper

“However, some studies have used unweighted analytical methods( 19 ) to avoid the loss of information associated with conducting weighted meta-analyses on a subset of the available information.”

In the citing paper

“As a result, there is still considerable controversy as to whether the use of organic production standards results in significant and consistent changes in the concentrations of potentially health-promoting (e.g. antioxidants, (poly)phenolics, vitamins and certain minerals) and potentially harmful (e.g. Cd and Pb) compounds in crops and crop-based foods( 7 , 19 – 22 ).”

In the citing paper

“Several systematic literature reviews have recently analysed the available published information, using both qualitative and quantitative methods, with the aim of identifying the potential effects of organic and conventional production protocols on the nutritional quality of crops( 19 – 21 ).”

In the citing paper

“However, these systematic reviews (1) used different methodologies (e.g. weighted and unweighted meta-analyses) and inclusion criteria, (2) did not cover most of the large amount of information published in the last 4–5 years, (3) provided no structured assessment of the strength of the evidence presented, and (4) came to contrasting conclusions.”

In the citing paper

“In the study carried out by Dangour et al. ( 19 ), published data from (1) surveys in which the organic samples were produced to ‘biodynamic-organic’ standards and (2) field experiments investigating associations between organic and conventional production protocols and crop composition were not included in the meta-analyses. This would have further reduced the number of data sets and sensitivity”

In the citing paper

“However, it contradicts the results of the systematic reviews/meta-analyses by Dangour et al. ( 19 ) and Smith-Spangler et al. ( 21 ), which indicated that there are no significant composition differences between organic and conventional crops.”

In the citing paper

“As has been mentioned in previous reviews( 19 – 21 ), pooling diverse information was necessary, because for most of the composition parameters, the number of published studies available was not sufficient to carry out separate meta-analyses for specific countries/regions and crop types and species.”

In the citing paper

“In contrast to previous literature reviews( 19 – 21 ), the larger number of studies now available allowed separate meta-analyses to be carried out for different crop types (e.g. fruits, vegetables and cereals), but only for a limited number of composition parameters.”