What does Organic Foods mean?
Organic foods are products of holistic agricultural practices focusing on bio-diversity, soil health, chemical free inputs etc. with an environmentally and socially responsible approach that have been produced in accordance with organic production standards.
People are wary to purchase organic food due to lack of confidence about its genuineness. The problem of fraud and mis-labelling occurs when a Food Business Operator (FBO) marks a product as organic while it contains non-organic ingredients or where the organic production standards are not adhered to in the production process. Therefore, it becomes important to check if the food labelled as “organic” is genuinely organic. The Food Safety and Standards (Organic Foods) Regulations, 2017 are based on the standards of National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP) and Participatory Guarantee System (PGS-India). The customer will be assured of the genuineness after the Regulations are notified.
How to get ‘India Organic’ Certification
India Organic Certification is a label given to organic products after validation, which ensures that the product or raw materials used in the product were grown through organic farming – without any chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or induced hormones. A trademark – “India Organic” will be granted on the basis of compliance with the National Standards for Organic Production (NSOP). Communicating the genuineness as well as the origin of the product, this trademark will be owned by the Government of India. The National Standards for Organic Products was established in 2000 which ensures the authenticity of the organic product. The certification is issued by testing centers accredited by the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), under the National Program for Organic Production of the Government of India. In spite of the formation of the certification board in 2000, the scheme came into existence in the year 2002 which provides this mark to the real organics.
Certifying Agency: APEDA
How to get Organic Certification label?——-
In order to get the label first, you need to book an organic certification agent and fill your agent’s application form and put them in. Now that the agent will review your application and decide whether your product stands as per the guidelines for authentication and are in compliance with NOP regulations and standards, the inspection of the site will be arranged by him. And the remaining process will be provided with a label after satisfaction.
What is the cost of this label? ——-
The total cost of this label will be calculated depending on application fee, site inspection fee and an annual certification fee which can be between 10,000-60,000 depending on the type of product, size of the production operation and the accredited agency one chooses
What is considered to get this certification? ——–
The farm or the product to get the certification needs to be associated with the authenticity since two to three years. For first time certification, the soil must meet the basic requirements of being free from the use of prohibited substances (synthetic chemicals, etc) for a number of years. A conventional farm must adhere to organic standards for this period then only it will fall under this category.
What’s the difference between USDA and ‘India organic’ certifications? —————–
The USDA label actually stands for the verification of the organic product in terms of their organic standards that describe the specific requirements that must be verified by USDA accredited agent before products can be labeled as USDA organic whereas ‘India organic’ is a label given to organic products after validation that ensures that the product or the raw materials used were grown through organic farming, without the use chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or induced hormones.
Can GMO products get this certification? ———–
No, it’s totally prohibited. It means an organic farmer can’t grow GMO crops and products. The GMO seeds can’t be used. Like for example if a cow is organic it can’t eat GMO feed and any organic product should not include GMO products as their ingredients.
Organic Food Regulations
The Gazette of India: Extraordinary
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
(Food Safety and Standards Authority of India)
NOTIFICATION
New Delhi, the 29th December, 2017
No. CPB/03/Standards/FSSAI/2016 – Whereas the draft Food Safety and Standards (Organic Foods) Regulations, 2017, were published as required under sub-section (1) of section 92 of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 (34 of 2006), vide notification of the Food Safety and Standard Authority of India number CPB/03/Standards/FSSAI/2016, dated the 19th June, 2017, in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part III, Section 4, inviting objections and suggestions from persons likely to be affected thereby before the expiry of period of thirty days from the date on which the copies of the Official Gazette containing the said draft regulations were made available to the public;
And whereas copies of the said Gazette were made available to the public on the 22nd June, 2017;
And whereas objections and suggestions received from the public in respect of the said draft regulations have been considered by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India;
Now, therefore, in exercise of the powers conferred by
cause (e) of sub-section (2) of section 92
read with sub-section (2) of section 16 and section 22 of the said Act, the
Food Safety and Standards
Authority of India, with previous
approval of Central Government, hereby makes the following regulations,
namely-
Regulations
CHAPTER -1
General
1. Short title and commencement – (1) These regulations may be called the
Food Safety and Standards
(Organic Foods) Regulations, 2017.
(2) They shall come
into force on the date of their publication in the Official Gazette and Food
Business Operator shall comply with all the provisions of
these regulations by 1st July 2018.
2. Definitions – (1) In these regulations, unless the context otherwise requires –
(a) “Act” means the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 (34 of 2006);
(b) “Accreditation body” means any agency recognized as such by the Food Safety and Standards
Authority of India or recognized under the National Programme for Organic Production for accreditation of certification bodies;
(c) “Accreditation Certification Body” means organization duly accredited by an Accreditation body
for certification of organic products and for granting the right to use the certification mark to the food business operators on behalf of the Accreditation body;
(d) “Claim” means any representation which states, suggests or implies that a food has particular
qualities relating to its origin, nutritional properties, nature, processing and composition;
(e) “Food Authority” means the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India established under
section 4 of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006;
(f) “National Programme for Organic Production” means a programme of the Government of India
which provides
an institutional mechanism for implementation of the National Standards for
Organic Production with a third-party
certification control system as notified by the Director
General of Foreign Trade under the
Foreign (Development and Regulation) Act, 1992(22 of
1992);
(g) “Organic Food” means food products that have been produced in accordance with specified
standards for organic food production;
(h) “Participatory Guarantee System for India” means a quality assurance initiative by the Department
of Agriculture Co-operation and Farmer’s Welfare, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer’s Welfare, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer’s Welfare, Government of India for organic production which emphasizes the participation of producers, consumers and other stakeholders and operate outside the framework of third party certification.
CHAPTER II
Organic Food Labelling and Certification
3. Manufacture, pack, sell etc., of organic food – No person shall manufacture, pack,
sell, offer for
sale, market or otherwise distribute or import any
organic food unless they comply with the requirements
laid down under these regulations.
4.
Applicability of the systems – (1) The organic food offered or promoted for sale shall also comply
with all the applicable provisions of one of the following
systems, namely: –
(i) National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP);
(ii) Participatory Guarantee System for India (PGS-India).
(iii) Any other system or standards as may be notified by the Food Authority from time to time.
(2) The Organic food which is marketed through
direct sales by the small original producer or
producer organization, as
determined by the Food Authority from time to time, to the end
consumer shall be exempted from the provisions of the
systems referred in sub-regulation (1).
5. Labelling- (1) Labelling on the package of organic food shall convey
full and accurate information on
the organic status of the product. Such product may carry
a certification or quality assurance mark of
one of the systems mentioned in regulation 4 in addition
to the Food Safety and Standard Authority of
India’s organic logo.
(2) All organic
foods shall comply with the packaging and labeling requirements specified under
the
Food Safety and Standards (Packaging and Labelling)
Regulations, 2011 in addition to the labeling
requirements under one of the
applicable systems mentioned in regulation 4.
6. Traceability – shall be
established upto the producer level as applicable under the systems mentioned
in regulation 4 and it shall include any other requirements prescribed
by the Food Authority to
maintain the organic integrity of the food product.
7. Requirement to comply with the provision of
the other regulations made under the Act. –
Without prejudice to the provision of these regulations,
all organic food shall comply with the relevant
provisions, as applicable, under the Food Safety and
Standards (Food Product Standards and Food
Additives) Regulations, 2011. The organic food shall also
comply with relevant provisions, as applicable
under the Food Safety and Standards (Contaminants, Toxins
and Residues) Regulations, 2011 except for residues of insecticides for
which the maximum limits shall be 5% of the maximum limits prescribed or Level
of Quantification (LoQ) whichever is higher.
8. Display – The seller of organic food either exclusively or as part
of his retail merchandise shall display
such food in a manner distinguishable from the display of
non-organic food.
CHAPTER III
Imports and Reciprocity
9. Import of organic food – (1) Organic food imports under
bilateral or multilateral agreements on the
basis of equivalence of standards between National
Programme for Organic Production and the
organic standards of the respective exporting countries
shall not be required to be re-certified on
import to India subject to their compliance with the
provisions of the Act, the rules and regulation
made there under.
(2) The organic food consignments referred to in sub-regulation. – (1) shall be accompanied by a transaction certificate issued by an Accredited Certification Body covered under the terms of the equivalence agreement.
FSSAI REGULATIONS ON ORGANIC LOGO
Dated the 29th June, 20018
Subject:
Direction under Section 16(5) of Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 regarding
compliance
of Food Safety and Standards
(Organic Foods) Regulations, 2017 published in the Official Gazette
of India on dated 29th December 2017 vide
Notification No. CPB/03/Standards/FSSAI/2016.
Reference is drawn to Food Safety and Standards (Organic
Foods) Regulations, 2017 published in
the Official Gazette of India on
dated 29th December, 2017 vide Notification No.
CPB/03/Standards/
FSSAI/2016. As per the notification, the Food Business Operator are required to
ensure compliance of
their existing and new products with
all provisions of these regulations by 1st July, 2018 and Food
Business Operator shall also comply
with various regulations notified under Food Safety and Standards
Act, 2006.
2. Based on
various representations received from stakeholders and review of preparedness
of the
implementation of the above regulation, it has been
decided to allow the use of non-detachable sticker
with respect to FSSAI’s Organic Logo
as required in regulation 5(1) up to 30th September, 2018.
3. The Food
Business Operator manufacturing/processing or handling Organic Food shall have
to obtain
license under Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 or get
the organic food endorsed in their existing
license through FLRS till 30th September 2018.
4. Further, for
the purpose of sub-regulation (2) of regulation 4 of said regulations, it is
clarified that the
small original producer or producer
organization may be same as for ‘petty food manufacturer’ under
the Food Safety and Standards (Licensing and Registration
of Food Businesses) Regulations, 2011,
which is the business with an annual turnover not
exceeding Rs. 12 Lakh per annum.
