The Food Authority has amended the Organic Food Regulations of 2017 to include provisions that aggregators or intermediaries shall be exempted from complying with the applicable provisions of the ‘organic’ food certification system.
The amendment regulations were notified as the first amendment regulations for organic food standards to include a sub regulations 3 under regulation 4 (applicability of systems), which reads, “Aggregators or Intermediaries who collect organic food from small original producer or producer organisation and sell it to the end consumer directly, are exempted from the provisions of the systems referred in sub-regulation (1) and they shall maintain records of traceability and comply with any of the provisions of the systems mentioned in sub-regulation (1) and organic food shall not carry Food Safety and Standard Authority of India's organic logo.”
The sub-regulation 1 says that 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) and (iii) Any other system or standards as may be notified by the Food Authority from time to time.
Also for labelling provisions under Regulation 5 of the Organic Food Regulations, the amendment notification added another provision 5 (3) which says, “In-conversion products under PGS-India may be labelled as 'PGS-Green' and may also be labelled as “In-conversion to organic? and the conversion products under NPOP may be labelled as “In-conversion to organic” and shall mention the year of conversion and such in-conversion products shall not carry Food Safety and Standard Authority of India's organic logo.”
Under PGS and NPOP separate logos were mandated for in-conversion farms (traditional farms that are in process of getting converted into organic farms).
The food business operators were asked to comply with all the provisions of these regulations with effect from May 1, 2022.