The consistently superior quality of carrots from one organic farm in Austria compared with conventional farms

Summary

The aim of this 5 year investigation was to compare quality parameters of differently cultivated carrots of the same cultivar grown in the same region as well as to compare the relevance of different methods of analysis to differentiate between these products.
The following quality tests were applied:
• Sensory tests (all harvests)
• Food preference tests with laboratory rats (all harvests)
• Decomposition tests (all harvests)
• P-value determination (all harvests)
• Single-Photon-Counting (1999)
• Chemical analysis of the main components (1998 and 1999)
It could be shown that carrots (var. Tarvil) grown using an organic farming method were significantly preferred by humans and laboratory rats, lost significantly less dry matter during decomposition, had lower P-values, indicating better bioelectrical properties, revealed a significantly better capacity to store biophotons, but showed no conclusive differentiation concerning their main components. Holistic methods were well qualified to distinguish organic from conventional carrots on significant levels.