Organic food: more clearness for producers and consumers with the new regulations.

Yesterday a proposal for a new regulations on the organic production
has been adopted by the European Commission, aimed to clarify the rules
of the organic farming for consumers and farmers.
The new regulations will be easier and will let flexibility in
considering climate and district differences. Organic farming producers
will be free to choose to utilize the UE Organic Logo or not. If they
choose to not use it their products will have to be labeled
''UE-organic''.
To be labeled like that, the finished product must be 95% Organic at
least. Products with GMO couldn't have the Organic label, except in a
percentage of 0,9% for an accidental contamination. Organic products
imported will be admitted only if in conformity with UE regulations or
provided by equivalent warranties. About this proposal the agriculture
commissary Mariann Fischer Boel said: ''For the consumers will be
easier to recognize organic products and see the advantages on the
environment and on the animal health. The current regulations will be
replaced by one easier and more transparent. Concepts and goals of the
organic farming will be better determined, rules about labels will be
clarify and importations will be more accurately regulated so that
consumers can be aware of what they buy and producers can exactly know
which rules must follow. The new regulations assimilate the conclusions
of the Council of October 2004 on the European Plan of Action for the
organic farming and organic food (PAE) of the June 2004, that outlines
a strategical global vision of the contribution that organic farming
can give to the common agriculture politics. The new importation system
will be already apply from 1 January 2007, meanwhile the full
regulations will be in force from 1 January 2009. The new regulations
show the following characteristics: define aims and concepts of organic
production, considering of the local conditions and of the stages of
development; ensure that aims and concepts can be apply equally in all
the phases of the organic animal production, vegetal, aquaculture and
feed as well as organic trasformed foods production; clarify the matter
about GMO, in particular about the application of the general limits of
GMO, about the prohibition to label as organic a product conteining GMO
and about the possibility to adopt specific limits for seeds; make
compulsory the use of the UE logo or of the phrase ''UE ORGANIC'', with
restriction to the informations that can be in the label and in the
advertising, with the aim of promoting a ''univocal concept'' of the
organic production; improve the control system, aligning it to the
official control system in force in the UE regarding to all kind of
foodstuffs and feeds;favour the free circulation of organic products
thanks to the best warranties offered by the UE rules, to the control
system impartiality, to the mutual recognition of production rules and
to the narrow border allowed to the organism of control to authorize
less strict regulations;establish a standing importation system, based
on the direct access for the exactly alike products to the european
regulations or on a equivalent control system.<br><i>Source of information:</i> European Commission