I’ve been hearing some questions about whether it’s possible to get organic products from China, so I went to Margaret Wittenberg to find out the inside scoop. Margaret has been with Whole Foods Market for about 27 years and she served on the National Organic Standards Board and helped write the USDA Organic Rule, so I figured she would be in the know. (Transparency alert: Margaret was my Team Leader for many years and I love this woman. Her integrity is unbelievable!)Anyway, here’s a quick blurb from Margaret on the whole organics in China deal:
“Whole Foods Market is a transparent company. We take pride in informing our customers about where our products come from so they can make conscious buying choices. The reality nowadays is that sourcing high quality organic products has gone global. Many companies play the game of sourcing ingredients from one country and packaging them elsewhere so they can be labeled from the country they were packaged in. Not at Whole Foods Market. For example, our Private Label team sources a few high quality organic products from China and we let our shoppers know that up front. We go to great lengths to ensure that the quality and organic integrity is there every step of the way, whether we are sourcing our products from around the corner or around the globe. We are proud of the processes, safeguards and protocols we have in place and we want our customers to know exactly what we do when it comes to sourcing.”
If you want to know more about our organic sourcing, check out “Sources You Can Trust opens in a new tab” – new info just posted to our website. We plan to have more on this topic this Friday. Got a specific question about organic sourcing? Let me know and I’ll try to make sure it is answered with the info posting Friday.
