The Effect of Organic Branding on Vitamin C Content In Fruits and Vegetables

The organic industry has grown tremendously in recent years. As a result, there has been increased branding on whether products are organic or genetically modified. This had lead to speculation on the difference in nutrient composition between GM and organic products, such as fruits and vegetables. Therefore, the purpose of this experiment was to determine whether the marketing of a product as organic correlates the amount of vitamin C in a fruit or vegetable. It was hypothesized that if a product is labeled as organic, then the product would contain more vitamin C. The experiment was conducted by initially purchasing fruits and vegetables from grocery stores. Then the fruits and vegetables were tested for vitamin C using the redox iodine titration method. Results found that there was statistically significant difference between the fruits and vegetables (ANOVA[F(8,36)=77.74, p\u3c0.001]). However, a Tukey test was taken to compare the amount of vitamin C between the organic and non-organic fruits and vegetables. The data showed that the difference between the organic and non organic groups was not statistically significant except for between organic and non-organic tomatoes. The results were not supported by the hypothesis because the organic groups did not have more vitamin C than the non-organic groups. This suggests that there is not a significant difference in the amount of vitamin C in organic and non-organic fruits and vegetables at stores