''You hear good things about DHA -- brain health," says Jeff Haigney, outside a Whole Foods supermarket in Silver Spring, Maryland, where his shopping cart included a half-gallon of Horizon DHA-enriched milk.
'Controversial' Evidence
"The evidence is controversial," Nestle says. "If you're a skeptic like me, you're not persuaded by the totality of evidence. If you're a believer in supplemental nutrition, then you want to do everything to get it in food."
On one point nearly everyone agrees: DHA doesn't need to be added to milk. Researchers such as Kris-Etherton say consumers can get the same brain-boosting benefits from two servings of fish per week.
DHA is just one of 234 additives allowed by the USDA's 15- member National Organic Standards Board, which advises Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack on items that can be included in food that is labeled "organic."
New Additives
The list of approved non-organic ingredients was supposed to be limited to items related to food production, such as baking powder for bread, along with additives including vitamins A and D that are deemed essential to health by the FDA, according to Jay Feldman, a member of the organic standards board.
In recent years, however, more additives that are neither essential to making food nor to health have been approved, Feldman said in an interview.
Feldman and other critics say the larger menu of non- organic ingredients reflects the expanded influence of large corporations. Many of the well-known organic food brands such as Muir Glen, Cascadian Farms and Kashi are subsidiaries of companies such as General Mills Inc. and Kellogg Co.
"We have this unrelenting drive to approve ingredients to make the industry grow," says Urvashi Rangan, director of consumer safety and sustainability for Consumer Reports. "That undermines the standards that people expect out of organic."