The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (“FSSAI”) has notified the Food Safety and Standards (Organic Foods) Regulations, 2017 (“Regulations”). The said Regulation will be effective immediately and the Food Business Operators are required to comply with the provisions by 1^st July 2018.

The key highlights of the Regulations are as follows: –

(1) Requirement to comply with the provisions laid down under these Regulations prior to manufacturing, packing, selling, offering for sale, marketing, distributing or importing any Organic Food.

(2) The Regulations mandate that the Organic Food that are offered or promoted for sale must also comply with all the applicable provisions of any one of the following systems:

(i) National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP);

(ii) Participatory Guarantee System for India (PGS-India).

(iii) Any other system or standards as may be notified by the Food Authority from time to time.

However, the Organic Food which is marketed through direct sales to the end consumer by any small original producer or producer organisation (as determined by FSSAI from time to time), shall be exempted from the requirement to comply with the provisions of any of the abovementioned systems.

[Note: Small original producer or producer organisation is an organisation whose annual turnover does not exceed Rs 12 Lakhs per annum].

(4) The labelling on the package of Organic Food shall be done in a way to convey full and accurate information on the organic status of the product. The label should also carry the FSSAI Organic logo in addition to a certification or quality assurance mark of one of the systems mentioned in point (2).

Furthermore, all packages of Organic Food need to comply with the standard labelling requirements specified under the Food Safety and Standards (Packaging and Labelling) Regulations, 2011 along with further labelling requirements specified in any of the prescribed regulations mentioned in point (2).

(5) Requirement to establish traceability up to the producer level as mentioned in any of the prescribed regulations mentioned in point (2) above, along with any other requirements prescribed by the FSSAI to maintain the organic integrity of the food product.

(6) Requirement for Organic Food to meet the relevant and applicable standards prescribed in the provisions of the following:

1. Food Safety and Standards (Food Product Standards and Food Additives) Regulation, 2011; and
2. Food Safety and Standards (Contaminants, Toxins, and Residues), Regulations, 2011, (except for residues of insecticides for which the maximum limits shall be 5% of the maximum limits prescribed or Level of Quantification (LoQ) whichever is higher);

(7) Requirement for sellers of organic food products (either exclusively or as part of retail merchandise), to display organic food items in a manner so that the same is distinguishable from the display of non-organic/ conventional food items;

[Note:

• Exemption on certain imported organic food products: Imported organic food products from countries with whom bilateral or multilateral agreements (equivalent to the standards prescribed by the National Program for Organic Production (NPOP)) are in place; shall be exempt from compliance with the provisions mentioned above and shall not be required to re-certify on import. However, such imported Organic Food items shall need to be accompanied by a transaction certificate issued by an Accredited Certification Body covered under the terms of equivalence agreement.
• It must be noted that FSSAI has introduced the logo for organic foods called “Jaivik Bharat”. The logo has been designed specifying the standards of organic farming and dealers cannot sell an organic product without the logo. The logo will act as a mark to distinguish Organic products from non-organic ones, with the tag line “Jaivik Bharat‟ at the bottom, for easy identification. The logo is made green in colour that has one circle, leaf and a tick mark on it. The circle (O) on the logo represents global holistic wellness, the green leaf represents nature, the tick mark represents the product is FSSAI certified as organic and the green colour represents environment. To print logo on products, the dealer needs to procure registration from NPOP and PGS-India].

For further details on the Regulation please refer to the attached document titled “Food Safety and Standards (Organic Foods) Regulations, 2017” (Abhishek comment: I have not been able to access any attached document through the website. This needs to be checked for other updates also).

Source: Food Safety and Standards Authority of India

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