I am putting both of these questions in GQ because they are more fact based as opposed to “How can I cook bacon” and “How can I get these grass stains out”. If I’m in the wrong thread feel free to move it and sorry in advance.
Food: I work in a grocery store and we sell organic milk. One of the milks we sell has been added with DHA (something to help kids grow or whatever). This is something I’ve noticed; that a lot of organic foods and drinks have added calcium/vitamin C/whatever…how can this be? Isn’t the point of organic supposed to be no added anything and super all natural? How can it be all natural if you are adding in chemicals?
Cleaning: At the same day I wondered the above question I had a lady ask me “This cleaning product says for “hard non porous surfaces”, what does that mean?” My answer was wood, because It has pores (I think), but I honestly have no idea. What isn’t a hard non porous surface? And for that matter whats a soft surface with no pores?
It’s complicated but generally refers to not using chemical pesticides/fertilizers to grow the food crop, or using crops grown in that fashion to feed the animal in question.
An example of a hard porous surface is something like marble. Pumice is the extreme end of things - relatively hard (OK, maybe not for most stones, but it’s pretty hard), lots of holes. A soft non-porous surface might include some plastics.
As for the added calcium/vitamins, etc. in organic foods, I don’t believe these are chemicals. They are naturally-occurring ingredients, therefore all-natural, therefore, can be added and a food still be called “all-natural”. The calcium that’s added for instance, could come from ground-up/dissolved oyster shells or egg shells. Certainly egg shells and oyster shells are all-natural.
Essentially Organic, Natural, etc are marketing terms as defined by certain regulations, see Ferret Herder’s link.
There is ‘100% Organic’, which has one set of regulations.
Then there is ‘Organic’, which only needs to have 95% certified organic ingredients.
Then there is ‘Made with Organic Ingredients’ which might make you think that all of the ingredients are organic, right? Wrong, that means that 70% of the ingredients are organic.
Then there is ‘Natural’ which is a whole 'nother can of worms. There is no legal definition of what constitutes a natural food other than it contains no artificial ingredients, which is another definition that is hard to nail down.
The DHA added to the milk in the OP may itself be defined as Natural, Organic, or even 100% Organic. In this current article from April 27, 2010 it sounds like the USDA is going to respond to the DHA issue.
A hard non-porous surface would be like your kitchen counter or your sink or something: the usual kitchen and bathroom surfaces. Wood has pores- it’s NOT a non-porous surface. Wood will swell up when wet. You need something like Murphy’s Oil Soap for wood.
Hard non pourous surfaces would include synthetic countertops, laminate flooring, etc. Almost any natural material including granite, which while very hard is a porous surface. As noted above, wood, a natural product is porous.
things with a lot of atomic or molecular linking or bonding might be nonporous like metals or polymers (plastics, resins).
as mentioned natural stone would be porous. synthetic stone is and isn’t; the resin would not be, the stone dust particles on the surface might be if they are unsealed.
concrete and masonry are porous.
nonporous use might refer that it would cause staining, something might be nonporous and still be stainable. the warning might have to be taken in the context of the product.