Organic

EC to Suspend 5 Organic Certifying Agencies The EC move follows its decision last year to derecognise 5 certifying agencies from clearing or ratifying exports of organic products

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The European Commission has decided to suspend five certifying bodies from clearing or ratifying exports of Indian processed or organic food products for their failure to comply with European Union norms and ensure con tamination-free products.

In a notification last week, the EC proposed an amendment to implementing regulation with regard to recognition of control authorities and control bodies  (certifying agencies) for permit-  ting import of organic products into the Union. As per this, TQ  Cert Services has been suspended from certifying processed organic food products on a request from the Indian government after the firm was suspended by the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority of India (APEDA) from clearing or certifying ex ports. APEDA is the competent authority recognized by the EU.

Contamination far MRLS

The other four-Control Union Certifications, Eco-cert SA, Lacon GmbH and One-cert International Pvt-have been suspended for non-compliance of EU organic products import norms. The EC said notification of non-complaisance cases had been registered in the Organic Farming Information System (OFIS).

“Those notifications concern the contamination of a large number of consignments of products, produced in India and certified as organic by those control bodies. The contamination’s were with products and sub stances not allowed in organic production and/or conventional production in the Union, at levels above and often far above the Maximum Residue Levels as set in Regulation of the European Parliament,” the EC said.

S Chandrasekharan, a trade analyst, said “this second systemic failure of certification agencies of foreign origin brings bellwether in upcoming India-EU discussions. It also drives value chain of organic certification systems towards creative destruction and institutional reforms.”