ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights a selection of fraud cases in the organic food sector and sets out the regulatory context against which organic food authenticity must be determined. It summarizes the findings from research studies that have important implications for using stable isotope analysis to infer information about organic agriculture, to draw together any general findings from the research, and to highlight any potential pitfalls of using stable isotope analysis in this area of food forensics. A large number of organic standards currently exist worldwide. Some of these organic standards are governmental regulations, others are industry standards; some have only local scope while others are used internationally. Stable isotope analysis of plant-derived nitrate has been reported significantly to improve the discrimination between organic and conventional potatoes from the field trials when compared to bulk isotope analysis. Rogers explores the feasibility of nitrogen and carbon isotope analysis as a screening tool to discriminate between commercial organic and conventional vegetables from New Zealand.
