The authenticity of organic produce currently relies on inspection and certification of the whole food production process, from "farm to fork." Bateman emphasized that chemical tests should not be a replacement for such auditing.
Lyn Austin of the National Association for Sustainable Agriculture Australia, one of Australia's certifiers of organic produce, agrees.
"A test for synthetic nitrogen would be a useful extra test option where there is suspicion," she said. "But the test on its own per se cannot be thought of as a replacement for organic certification and inspection."
Scott Kinnear of another certification body, Biological Farmers of Australia, says such a test would be very advantageous.
"Our organization is from time to time called upon to investigate allegations and this testing appears to be most promising," he said.
Kinnear said the appropriate government agencies should conduct some baseline research in Australia to see if the variations observed in Europe and the UK also appear in Australia.
"If the cost is feasible then we would look favorably on incorporating this testing in to our random sampling of organic produce grown by our certified clients."
There are about 100 standards schemes for organic produce around the world.
