Do organic foods really taste better? Anyone who has tasted the vegetables grown in their own garden without resorting to pesticides or fertilizers, knows well the difference in taste compared to what they bought at the supermarket. According to a recent study, however, the awareness of enjoying a natural food, labeled as organic, could fool our taste buds.
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- organic food are they only tastier in our heads or do they really taste better? Anyone who has tasted the vegetables grown in their own garden without resorting to pesticides or fertilizers, knows well the difference in taste compared to what they bought at the supermarket. According to a recent study, however, the awareness to enjoy a natural food, labeled as biological o fair-trade, May deceive our taste buds.
Will it really be like this? It shows the mind and the information that we have available on the food we are about to taste really can affect our taste buds? According to research conducted in Sweden, this could happen in the case of the coffee or other organic products. The researchers carried out the study in question on this drink.
The experts asked a group of volunteers to taste two ordinary cups of coffee, telling them that one of the two drinks was organic. The two cups of coffee were identical and neither contained organic coffee. Yet the participants allegedly claimed that the coffee they believed was organically sourced boasted the best taste.
The problem would not so much concern a comparison of flavors between organic and conventional products, but the ability of Labels affixed to the foods of affect our sense of taste and our attitude towards food. The awareness of tasting a natural product, in the opinion of experts, could alter our expectations regarding taste.
Researchers wonder whether the labeling of products for sale in stores, which are branded as organic or from fair trade, are capable of influence our food and shopping choices, up to our ability to perceive flavors in a realistic way.
Yet, the differences in flavor between conventional and organic, or in any case natural, products do exist, and many consumers will certainly have noticed them. The use of pesticides and storage methods, together with the shorter or longer distances traveled by products during transport, could lead to different taste results.
And it is precisely according to the better organoleptic qualities organic products that many people are willing to spend a little more to buy them - also gaining health, since pesticides are avoided thanks to organic shopping. Notwithstanding, in any case, that organic products are not always more expensive than others and that even in this case it is possible to save money, for example by contacting trusted farmers directly or by cultivating your own vegetable garden.
As for the Swedish study, even if organic coffee doesn't taste better than conventional coffee, the advantages would be much more and much more important: prohibition of the use of pesticides for its cultivation (absence of any residues in the drink) and respect for workers' rights in the case of coffee from fair trade.
The study conducted by researchers fromUniversity of Gavle was published in PlosOne magazine with the title “Who Needs Cream and Sugar When There Is Eco-Labeling? Taste and Willingness to Pay for “Eco-Friendly” Coffee ”.
Marta Albè
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