Kiwifruit vines grown under different regimes on the same Californian farm have produced fruit with almost identical levels of sugars and acids – but the fruit grown organically proved healthier.
Organically grown kiwifruit on the Marysville farm had significantly higher levels of vitamin C and polyphenols – compounds associated with health benefits including reducing cholesterol, improving circulation and preventing cancer.
The new research was carried out by Dr Maria Amodio and Dr Adel Kader, from the University of California Davis.
The researchers' comparison of organic and non-organic kiwifruit grown next to each other showed the organic fruit was darker and had thicker skin – likely to have developed as part of its defence against pests in the absence of pesticides.
The polyphenols, antioxidants that reduce the production in the body of harmful chemicals called free radicals, were 17 per cent higher in the organic fruit than in the fruit grown conventionally.
The organic produce was also found to have 14 per cent more vitamin C and greater concentrations of several important minerals such as potassium and calcium.
Writing in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, the two researchers said: "All the main mineral constituents were more concentrated in the organic kiwi fruit, which also had higher asorbic acid (vitamin C) and total polyphenol content, resulting in higher antioxidant activity."
They said it was possible that conventional growing practices use levels of pesticides that could disrupt production of phenolic metabolites in the plant that have a protective role in plant defence mechanisms. Another recent study overseas found that a pint of organic milk has 68 per cent more omega 3 fatty acids – important for normal brain functioning – than conventionally produced milk.
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