Does Organic Food Last Longer?

With all the media attention over the last few years about organic foods and conventional foods, and the fight over which is better for you, one question that might cross your mind is does organic food last longer than conventional food?

  Well, you can buy one of each and set them out to see which one grows mold first, or you can do a little research.Conventional foods are processed with preservatives to keep them fresh longer.  But, you never really know how long they have been sitting on the shelf before you came along either.  Those preservatives might help to keep those apples fresher longer, but depending on how you keep them at home, these preservatives might be a waste of time.  Also, some preservatives will break down the outside of the food after a period of time, or if exposed to certain temperatures.  So, you don’t really know how long a conventional food is going to last.

Organic foods, on the other hand, do not contain preservatives.  While this might lead you to think that they will spoil faster, you need to remember that some preservatives will break down foods faster than normal if they are exposed to heat or extreme temperatures.  So, if you live in a hotter climate, it may not really matter if that banana has preservatives or not, it might go bad just the same as an organic one will.  But, you will know that the organic one does not have all the extra chemicals in there.

So, when asking the question does organic food last longer than conventional food, it really all boils down to how you will keep the food once you get home.  All foods will spoil, some faster than others, but there is no firm data or studies that suggest that organic foods will go bad faster than any other kind of food.