However, this broad and sweeping definition does not often coincide with the conditions that are laid down by government bodies before granting "organic" status to a food product. This is especially true of developed countries like the United States, Japan, etc. where rules defining organic food are very strict (though sometimes confusing). In these conditions, a product must follow all the rules and fulfill all the conditions before it can claim to be organic.

Organic food can be either fresh food or processed food.

Fresh organic foods must be free of all artificial chemicals like fertilizers, pesticides, antibiotics, growth hormones, steroids, etc. Typically, though, the term fresh food never applies to non-vegetarian products. Fresh foods are also easily perishable in nature and available only in certain seasons.

Processed organic foods are more complicated.

These foods also contain organic ingredients but when they are being processed they have to go through stages that are not organic at all. The only care that is taken for processed foods is that they do not contain artificial flavors or artificial methods such as chemical ripening and food irradiation.

In recent times, organic processed food has reached the same amount of market recognition and consumption ratios as fresh food. Some of you might remember the good old days when if you wanted something to be truly fresh you did not go to the supermarket. For vegetables you went to your farmer friend and for milk you would likewise go to the closest dairy farmer.

Those were days when there was no need for supermarkets to cater to thousands of people each day. The demand was low and the farmer could grow things naturally without the need to hurry things up. Sadly, those days are gone and the connection between farmer and consumer has been replaced with factories and supermarkets.

The result is that the final quality of the food product being purchased does not depend on first hand knowledge but on the label that the manufacturer puts on the food product. This is why it is necessary for governmental bodies to come up with laws and regulations that govern the entire procedure and journey of organic foods from seed to kitchen.