The DGCCRF recently published its 2017 annual control plan for organic products.
This control plan aims to verify compliance with Regulation No 834/2007 on organic production and labelling of organic products.
The monitoring focused on:
- the obligations of the actors in the sector in terms of certification (According to Regulation (EC) No 834/2007, any operator placing organic products on the market must notify his activity to the Organic Agency and submit his company to the control system provided for by the Regulation).
- imported organic feed materials for animal feed
- storage locations
- importers placing organic products on the market via websites
1624 establishments were audited with an anomaly rate of 28% following the following actions:
- 449 warnings
- 169 injunctions
- 60 minutes of proceedings
Among the main anomalies observed:
- certification rules not respected
- production rules not respected
- labelling issues
- deceptive marketing practices
The majority of the warnings were for minor anomalies and did not affect the biological nature of the products.
Injunctions have been issued to operators to notify their activity to the organic agency and to certify themselves to an approved body.
Other operators have also had to correct their non-compliant labelling by removing the prefix Bio or organic indications.
Minutes were sent to retail establishments specialising in organic farming that offered products produced locally in the absence of notification and certification.
Establishments were also sanctioned because they offered products presented as organic for sale even though they did not come from this sector, wholesalers without certification for the marketing of products and operators who continued to promote their products with the organic label and the reference to certification even though they had been subject to suspension or withdrawal of certification.
Please note that our laboratory is accredited in flexible scope for the detection of pesticide residues in products of plant, animal and animal origin and animal feed. For more details, you can consult our COFRAC technical appendix N°1-1904 on our website or on the COFRAC website.
For any technical, pricing or regulatory information, do not hesitate to contact us.
