Søltoft et al. [49] report that the expected higher content
of presumed health-promoting carotenoids in carrot roots
and human diets was not documented in their study. The
plasma status of carotenoids increased significantly after
consumption of the organic and conventional diets, but no
systematic differences between the agricultural production
systems were observed. Jiwan et al. [50] tested the baby
foods. The selected for analysis foods were for the same age
group (4+ months) and of two types: chicken and vegetable
dinners and berry-based desserts. Due to their ingredient
composition, carotenoid content and bioaccessibility varied
within and between the organic and non-organic foods. The
conclusion was that the organic dinners tested were generally not superior to the non-organic foods in terms of
carotenoid content and bioaccessibility. Similar conclusions
were reached in another study by Cardoso et al. [13] comparing the concentration of vitamin C and carotenoids
between three fruits produced by organic and conventional
farming in Brazil. There was no evidence of the nutritional
superiority of the organically grown fruits.
The study of Hallmann [33] observed a significantly
higher content of β-carotene for conventional tomatoes in
the 2 years. Different results were indicated by Rossi et al.
[30].
Juroszek et al. [35] observed a higher content of β-
carotene in organic tomato fruits. Data calculated across
two years showed no significant differences between
organic and conventionally produced tomatoes for the fruit
nutritional parameters, including β-carotene. When
matched farm pairs were evaluated on the basis of individual-year data, very few significant differences were found