In my experience, whenever there is a 'break in bulk' (ie,
repackaging of some sort) there is the potential for fraud.
I'll be blunt. When I go into a store, particularly a regional
chain, like Dominicks, Stop & Shop, or even Whole Foods, I simply
don't believe them when they describe a product as organic.
California Code veggies (maybe, maybe not even) removed from their
box, which I never see, and they suddenly graduate to "organic."
With an organic price, of course.
Or, little one pound bags of millet (or whatever) packaged in the
back of the store, and magically appearing as organic out on the
shelves in front.
In my opinion, there is probably more out-and-out organic fraud at
the retail level then in the rest of the system combined -- and that
includes some mighty shady processors.
There is simply too much money to be made by labelling stuff as
organic at the retail level. AND, it's the one area where nobody in
the organic surveillance system is minding the store, so to speak.
Draw you own conclusions, but it hasn't been hard for me to draw
mine.
Too bad the probable federal regulations are likely to avoid it
completely -- it means they're probably wasting their time with the
rest of it, if consumer protection has anything to do with it.