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Introduction to Organic Certification:

Organic Certification is a certification process for producers of organic food and other organic agricultural products. In general, any business directly involved in food production can be certified, including seed suppliers, farmers, food processors, retailers and restaurants. A lesser known counterpart is certification for organic textiles (or Organic clothing) that includes certification of textile products made from organically grown fibres.

Requirement of Organic Certification:

Requirements vary from country to country and generally involve a set of production standards for growing, storage, processing, packaging and shipping that include:

• Avoidance of synthetic chemical inputs (e.g. fertilizer, pesticides, antibiotics, food additives), irradiation and the use of sewage sludge;
• avoidance of genetically modified seed;
• use of farmland that has been free from prohibited chemical inputs for a number of years (often, three or more);
• for livestock, adhering to specific requirements for feed, housing, and breeding;
• keeping detailed written production and sales records (audit trail);
• maintaining strict physical separation of organic products from non-certified products;
• undergoing periodic on-site inspections.

In some countries, certification is overseen by the government, and commercial use of the term organic is legally restricted. Certified organic producers are also subject to the same agricultural, food safety and other government regulations that apply to non-certified producers.

• In India, APEDA regulates the certification of organic products as per National Standards for Organic Production called NPOP.
• The NPOP standards for production and accreditation system have been recognized by European Commission and Switzerland as equivalent to their country standards.
• Similarly, USDA has recognized NPOP conformity assessment procedures of accreditation as equivalent to that of US.
• With these recognition, Indian organic products duly certified by the accredited certification bodies of India are accepted by the importing countries.
• Organic food products manufactured and exported from India are marked with the India Organic certification mark issued by the APEDA.
• APEDA has recognized 11 inspection certification bodies, some of which are branches of foreign certification bodies, others are local certification bodies.

Organic Certification as per NPOP is mandatory for FBO who is seeking an organic endorsement of concerned FSSAI License number.

Purpose & Benefits of Organic Certification:

Organic certification addresses a growing worldwide demand for organic food. It is intended to assure quality and prevent fraud and to promote commerce. While such certification was not necessary in the early days of the organic movement, when small farmers would sell their produce directly at farmers’ markets, as organics have grown in popularity, more and more consumers are purchasing organic food through traditional channels, such as supermarkets. As such, consumers must rely on third-party regulatory certification.

For organic producers, certification identifies suppliers of products approved for use in certified operations. For consumers, “certified organic” serves as a product assurance, similar to “low fat”, “100% whole wheat”, or “no artificial preservatives”.

Certification is essentially aimed at regulating and facilitating the sale of organic products to consumers. Individual certification bodies have their own service marks, which can act as branding to consumers—a certifier may promote the high consumer recognition value of its logo as a marketing advantage to producers.

Download and Read:

• NPOP India Organic Standard
• USDA-NOP Standard Manual
• EU Organic Regulation and its Amendment
• JAPAN Organic Certification Standard,
• CANADA – Organic Certification Standards
• List of Accredited Certification bodies under NPOP, APEDA Approved.

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