IOIA Technical Advisory Panel
National Organic Program - Labeling
|
Q
and A: Contacts: Nancy Ludwig, Food Technologist & Dietitian, nancyludwig@attbi.com |
Summary:
Congress passed the Organic Foods Production Act (OFPA) of 1990. The OFPA required
the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to develop national standards for
organically produced agricultural products to assure consumers that agricultural
products marketed as organic meet consistent, uniform standards. The OFPA and
the National Organic Program (NOP) regulations require that agricultural products
labeled as organic originate from farms or handling operations certified by
a State or private entity that has been accredited by USDA.
This is the NOP
definition for labeling:
All written, printed, or graphic material accompanying an agricultural product
at any time or written, printed, or graphic material about the agricultural
product displayed at retail stores about the product.
Relevance to Inspectors:
| Useful Links: |
| The
rules: http://www.ams.usda.gov/nop/NOP/standards/LabelReg.html |
| Consumer
information (pictures): http://www.ams.usda.gov/nop/Consumers/brochure.html http://www.ams.usda.gov/nop/Consumers/OrganicLabelingPhoto.html |
| Stream
of commerce and labeling: http://www.ams.usda.gov/nop/NOP/PolicyStatements/StreamofCommerce.html |
| Calculating
percentages: http://www.ams.usda.gov/nop/NOP/PolicyStatements/OrgProdIngre.html |
| Labeling
requirement tables: http://www.ams.usda.gov/nop/ProdHandlers/LabelTable.htm http://www.ams.usda.gov/nop/ProdHandlers/AlcoholLabel.htm |
| Labeling
rules explained: http://www.ams.usda.gov/nop/FactSheets/LabelingE.html |
| Questions
and Answers from the NOP: http://www.ams.usda.gov/nop/Q&A.html#Labeling |
NOP Labeling is
relevant to inspectors since all products produced, handled or intended for
sale as organic in the U.S. must comply with the NOP labeling standards. Organic
producers and handlers must describe their labeling as part of their Organic
System Plans (OSP). Inspectors then must
verify and assess the compliance of the labels used. Specifically, the inspector
verifies that labels being used are the same as those reported/described in
the OSP and that the labels used appear compliant with pertinent NOP rules.
Areas or subtopics
of Importance to Inspectors:
1) NOP
label categories:
"100% Organic"; "Organic"; "Made with organic (specified
ingredients or food group(s))."; and products with less than 70 percent
organically produced ingredients.
2) What must the label include?
3) Where can/must label information appear on packaged products?
4) Labeling of products for export (out of the US).
5) When must NOP-compliant labels be used (stream of commerce).
6) Calculating the percentage of organic ingredients for labeling purposes.
Q & A
No questions have been posted as of yet.