In a bid to ensure authenticity of organic food, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has come out with a draft regulation for organic food products.
Organic Food:
Organic food products are either those grown under a system of agriculture without the use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides or made from organically produced raw materials.
- Currently, a number of food products are being marketed as organic, but consumers do not have any way to check the authenticity of organic food products due to lack of a regulatory framework.
- The draft regulation on organic food by FSSAI is aimed at overcoming this problem and ensuring that what is sold as organic food is really organic.
Provisions of FSSAI’s Draft Regulation on Organic Food:
Organic foods will have to comply with the provisions under the National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP) administered by the government or the Participatory Guarantee System for India (PGS-India) run by the Agriculture Ministry or any other standards notified by the food authority.
- The draft regulation mandates that labelling of organic foods should convey full and accurate information on the organic status of the product.
- Organic food products should also carry a certification mark or a quality assurance
mark given by any of the notified certification bodies. - The FSSAI’s draft has exempted organic food marketed through direct sale by the original producer or producer organisation to the end consumer from verification compliance. However, this exemption does not apply to processed organic products.
- The FSSAI has defined ‘organic agriculture’ as a system of farm design and management to create an eco system of agriculture production without the use of synthetic external inputs such as chemicals, fertilisers, pesticides and synthetic hormones or genetically modified organisms.
mark given by any of the notified certification bodies.About Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI):
- Objective: To protect and promote public health through regulation and supervision of food safety
- Established under: Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006
- Establishment Year: 2011
- Headquarters: New Delhi
- Parent Entity: Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India
- Current Chairman: Ashish Bahuguna
