If you are a health freak, chances are that you have tried some of the organic foodstuffs that are now available in the market. After all, organic products are supposed to be healthier than non-organic ones as they are grown without any pesticides or artificial fertilisers or chemicals.

Indeed, from eggs to chicken, from pulses to cereals, from tea to spices, supermarket shelves and high end grocery stores are now overflowing with organic products. And they are pricier than their non-organic counterparts. For example, while normal eggs come for Rs 42 a dozen, organic eggs cost Rs 80 a dozen. Or, where you would pay Rs 80-90 for a kg of tur dal, if you’d like to go organic, the same product would cost you Rs 136 a kg.

But before you pay more to buy those organic eggs or perhaps that brand of organic tea, you need to make sure that the product is truly “organic” and not something that merely claims to be so.

Most organic foods come with a specific certification. The certifications are given by such agencies as Ecocert International, IMO India Pvt. Ltd, Indocert, OneCert, Lacon, SGS India Pvt. Ltd and SKAL International. These agencies are accredited with the National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP), set up by the Government of India’s ministry of commerce. In fact, all products sold or labelled as organic need to be inspected and certified by an NPOP-accredited body.

Needless to say, when you reach for an organic product you should check that it carries the necessary certification. As D.V. Ram Kumar, executive director, food and consumer durables, Spencers Retail Ltd, points out, “The only way to be sure with these products is to buy trusted brands and check certification logos, expiry date and manufacturer data.”

Big retailers too claim to run a check on these products before putting them up on their shelves. “Our quality team inspects the organic farms from where we source our products. We also carry out field visits to the manufacturing facilities,” says Kumar.

Once you’ve checked that the certification is in place, can you rest easy and go ahead and buy your organic foodstuff? Well, not always, warn consumer experts. As Preeti Shah, senior director, Consumer Education Research Centre (CERC), points out, “Certificates issued by such agencies as OneCert, Control Union and others are shown by the manufacturers as proof of the authenticity of their products. But there is no independent watchdog to ensure that these certificates are being renewed every year, which is necessary to check malpractices.” In other words, explains Shah, a producer may have obtained a certificate for a particular product, say in 2008, and carry on using that certification even in 2011.

Retailers admit that it is difficult to plug such loopholes in the system. As Kumar says, “We go by the certifications provided by the manufacturers, but it’s not always possible to check whether these are annually renewed since it is still an evolving business with very low volumes.”

Of course, manufacturers of organic foods insist that they adhere to the strictest norms and always ensure that the food that they market has been produced the natural way, that is, without chemical fertilisers, pesticides and so on.

Take 24 Letter Mantra, which is part of the Hyderabad-based Sresta Natural Bioproducts Pvt. Ltd, and is one of the leading manufacturers of organic foods. It claims to maintain strict quality control through multiple levels of checks. Says N. Balasubramanian, CEO, 24 Letter Mantra, “Annual auditing and certification of our farms and facilities are carried out by third party certifying agencies.”

Organic India Pvt. Ltd, one of the largest organic food companies in the country, also boasts of having acquired all the requisite certifications for their products. As Amit Kumar, group product manager, reveals, “We are the first company in India to get all the necessary certifications. We have 15,000 farmers working for us.”

Yet charges of “organic” foods being not quite so crop up regularly. For example, a recent survey of 12 brands of organic tea carried out by consumer agency CERS found traces of heavy metals like lead in all of them. Of course, manufacturers scoff at these reports and say that they are blown out of proportion. Asserts U.K. Tiwari, head, research and development, Organic India, “The lead found in our tea, for example, is well within the prescribed limit, which is 10ppm. Moreover, lead is insoluble in water, so the small amount that there is in the tea won’t affect the consumer in any way.”

Even so, if a consumer does find evidence of malpractice or false claims when it comes to organic foods, he or she can always approach the district or state consumer redressal forum or put in a complaint with the government’s consumer affairs department. “Once a complaint is lodged with the consumer affairs department, an expert opinion is sought from the food department. If evidence of malpractice is found, the company representative is called and in extreme cases the department may even write to the state government and ask it to take action against the manufacturer,” says consumer lawyer Prasanta Banerjee.

There is a debate on whether or not organic foods are as beneficial as they are cracked up to be. There can be no debate, however, that as a consumer you should be getting what you are paying for. So before you part with that extra buck to buy organic, do make sure that it is truly so.