Welcome to Paging Dr. Gupta. I am back again to answer your health questions and more. Today, Jennifer is going to be joining us with some new questions from all of you. Jennifer, who do we have first? Okay, so our first question is from Meg. She's calling in from New Jersey, and she has a great question about organic food.

How do we determine or ascertain that the food that comes from other countries is, in fact, organic?

I assume in the United States there are inspectors and those kind of things,

but I'm curious about things that come from other countries.

Thank you. All right, I love this question. Meg, thank you very much.

Truth is, look, more than ever, people are interested in where their food comes from.

They're interested in exactly how it's grown and then how it gets to their table.

And many of us are interested in choosing organic foods.

But the question becomes then, how do you know if it's really organic,

especially if it comes from abroad?

I'm going to tell you what you need to know right after the break.

All right, welcome back to Paging Dr. Gupta.

How do you know of something that is labeled as organic is really organic?

Well, in the United States, we have inspectors in a certification process to make sure food labeled organic meets strict standards.

Now, that's enforced by the USDA, the U.S. Department of Agriculture. They have a

national organic program which develops and enforces the standards for organic crops,

livestock, and agricultural products. Let me take a step back for a second and explain these

standards. We've talked about them before, but basically, organic food is considered organic

because of the way it is farmed, handled, and processed. I'm going to repeat that.

Organic food is labeled that way because of the way that it is farmed, handled, and processed.

So for fruits and vegetables, for example, to be certified organic by the USDA,

farmers and growers need to avoid the use of prohibited substances.

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