Contamination could deal blow to organic farmers

The ABC has uncovered suspected benzene contamination and possible synthetic nitrates in food products approved for organic farming.

Laboratory tests commissioned by 7.30 have led to a widespread investigation by Australia's largest organic regulator.

Australian Certified Organic (ACO) is still trying to determine the extent of the problem, but the contamination means organic farmers are at risk of losing their certification.

At the centre of the controversy is Queensland company Nutri-Tech Solutions (NTS), the county's biggest supplier, manufacturer and exporter of organic-friendly agricultural products.

Scientists formerly employed by NTS have told 7.30 about misuse and abuse of organic claims.

For five years up to 2010, qualified chemist Michael Susic was responsible for NTS's quality assurance.

In 2008, he noticed an unusual chemical odour in a treated herb imported from China used in the manufacture of an organic nutrition supplement.

The chemist suspected the cancer-causing petrochemical benzene.

"There were two batches that were sent away to a reputable laboratory and they discovered that they did contain benzene and in quite high concentrations," he said.

"One batch had 10 per cent benzene and another batch had 20 per cent of benzene.

"On numerous occasions I made the company aware of these problems with organic certification. Basically, I was ignored."

Quarantine

NTS says this contaminated product was never sold to the public and it arranged for the Chinese supplier to change its manufacturing process.

But 7.30 commissioned a laboratory to analyse the product NTS bought earlier this year. The results continue to show elevated levels of benzene and other related chemicals.

ACO senior scientist Jorge Larranaga says the benzene levels pose no threat to public safety, but the latest laboratory results could have serious implications for some organic farmers.

"Well these are serious allegations of course, and they are something that we need to investigate further," he said.

"Any farmer who has used that particular product, we have to establish a quarantine period, we'll take some soil samples take a pesticide residue, check benzene or any other nitrates received on the soil and if we find there is some residue, that farmer has to go through a two-year pre-certification period."

As a result, he says some farmers could lose their organic certification.

"It's serious, because it's not allowed, it's totally prohibited under organic standard. So that's serious," he said.

"If systematically we found that they were hiding some information, that is a major no-conformance so they will lose certification for all the company for all their products."

High nitrate levels

The ABC also commissioned the same laboratory to analyse NTS's fulvic acid product, Fulvic-1400, which was purchased by the ABC earlier this year.

The results indicated heightened levels of nitrate, which the organic regulator agrees could suggest synthetic contamination.

"That's higher levels, but from the point of view for [conventional] organic farming... it's not so high, but even those levels are not allowed for organic farming input unless they can demonstrate it's a naturally occurring nitrate," Dr Larranaga said.

NTS declined an offer for an on-camera interview but issued a written statement.

It says it has an active quality control department and is cooperating with the regulator.

"The presence of... elements in the testing that you have performed are of concern to us and we are carrying out our own independent testing in order to investigate these issues," the statement said.

"We will voluntarily remove any products in questions from the allowed input list pending further investigations by ourselves and any direction from Australian Certified Organic."

As a result of 7.30's inquiries, Nutri-safe - the product with benzene contamination - was voluntarily taken off the organic list last week.

And the fulvic acid product has also been taken off the list directly as result of the ABC-commissioned lab testing which showed suspected synthetic nitrate.

Honesty

Fundamental to the organic food industry is organic certification, the gold standard of determining whether a product is organically pure, chemical free and environmentally friendly.

But ACO agronomist Tim Lester, who was also NTS's export manager for six years up to 2009, says the integrity of this system is now being called into question.

"Organic certification relies too much on honesty, and when there's money involved people are never going to be honest," he said.

"That system depends on honesty and people being true and honest about what they are selling. And if they're not true and honest about what they're selling, then that's when the whole system falls down."

On one occasion he saw the flow chart of an organic soil supplement product from China and sold under the Nutri-Tech Solutions brand.

He suspected a synthetic contaminant.

"It was processed with nitric acid and that's not allowed under the organic standards. All synthetic nitrogen is not allowed to be used in the manufacture of organic products," he said.

"I basically informed the directors and that's as far as my role would go with that product because I wasn't involved in organic certification.

"[But the directors] just ignored me and didn't want to get involved for their own reasons."

Mr Lester also says he was aware of pesticide contamination included in a so-called organic supplement shipped for export.

He says Glokill, an industrial biocide, was found in products that were exported with the organic certification sticker.

However, in its statement NTS argues both Mr Susic and Mr Lester are disgruntled employees who are making allegations for commercial reasons.

"The whole premise of this investigation is fundamentally flawed and is seeking to sensationalise what is a basically miniscule contamination for organic certification of just two of over 200 products," the company said in a statement.

Both scientists deny the claim.

Source: ABC News, 19 July 2012