“Nourish is an organic cafe.” What does that actually mean?
We like to be transparent with our practices and teach our customers and clients about nutrition and wellness so they reach optimal health.
We recommend to our customers and nutrition clients to make every reasonable effort to eat as organically as possible, but we realize that it is impossible to do something 100% of the time unless you grow all your own food and control every ingredient 100% of the time.
According to the legal definition as identified by the FDA, there are four categories for organic labeling on prepackaged foods.
- 100% Organic: All ingredients are produced organically. It also may have the USDA seal.
- Organic: At least 95% or more of the ingredients are organic.
- Made With Organic Ingredients: Contains at least 70% organic ingredients.
- Less Than 70% Organic Ingredients: Three of the organic ingredients must be listed under the ingredient section of the label.
Nourish makes every reasonable effort to use organic produce and ingredients in the cafes and meal plans along with wild sustainable fish, grass fed beef, and clean ingredients.
For the Nourish cafés, in a small percentage of cases, local organic options are not available and Nourish is forced to use produce that is either not officially certified organic but are grown by farms that use organic practices or they are conventionally grown. For brief periods of time, some ingredients may not be available certified organic because of shortages due to gaps in the growing seasons or because of problems with rainfall and other weather conditions detrimental to growing.
When financially reasonable, and appropriate to a recipe, these gaps or shortages are remedied with organic frozen produce. Otherwise, in some cases, conventional produce or eliminating menu items is necessary.
Like many restaurants that choose to use organic ingredients, in some cases, Nourish may choose to use produce officially labeled “conventional” that is in fact produce grown by farms who follow organic practices but may not yet be certified organic because of waiting periods or cost of certification.
Sometimes, Nourish is forced to temporarily make certain menu items or juices unavailable because we are unable to get organic ingredients.
