General Provisions
Labelling of Products in Transition/Conversion to Organic
Labelling of non-retail Containers
3.1 Organic products should be labelled in accordance with the Codex General Standard for the Labelling of Prepackaged Foods[12]
3.2 The labelling and claims of a product specified in Section 1.1(a) may refer to organic production methods only where:
a) such indications show clearly that they relate to a method of agricultural production;3.3 The labelling and claims of a product specified in paragraph 1.1(b) may refer to organic production methods only where:b) the product was produced in accordance with the requirements of Section 4 or imported under the requirements laid down in Section 7;
c) the product was produced or imported by an operator who is subject to the inspection measures laid down in Section 6, and
d) the labelling refers to the name and/or code number of the officially recognized inspection or certification body to which the operator who has carried out the production or the most recent processing operation is subject.
a) such indication show clearly that they relate to a method of agricultural production and are linked with the name of the agricultural product in question, unless such indication is clearly given in the list of ingredients;3.4 By way of derogation from paragraph 3.3(b),b) all the ingredients of agricultural origin of the product are, or are derived from, products obtained in accordance with the requirements of Section 4, or imported under the arrangements laid down in Section 7;
c) the product should not contain any ingredient of non-agricultural origin not listed in Annex 2, Table 3;
d) the same ingredients shall not be derived from an organic and nonorganic origin;
e) the product or its ingredients have not been subjected during preparation to treatments involving the use of ionizing radiation or substances not listed in Annex 2, Table 4;
f) the product was prepared or imported by an operator subject to the regular inspection system as set out in Section 6 of these guidelines; and
g) the labelling refers to the name and/or the code number of the official or officially recognized certification body or authority to which the operator who has carried out the most recent preparation operation is subject.
- certain ingredients of agricultural origin not satisfying the requirement in that paragraph may be used, within the limit of maximum level of 5% m/m of the total ingredients excluding salt and water in the final product, in the preparation of products as referred to in paragraph 1.1(b);3.5 Pending further review of the guidelines in accordance with Section 8, Member Countries can consider the following with regard to products referred to in paragraph 1.1(b) marketed in their territory:- where such ingredients of agricultural origin are not available, or in sufficient quantity, in accordance with the requirements of Section 4 of these guidelines;
- the development of specific labelling provisions for products containing less than 95% ingredients of agricultural ingredients;3.6 In developing labelling provisions from products containing less than 95% of organic ingredients in accordance with the paragraph above, member countries may consider the following elements in particular for products containing 95% and 70% of organic ingredients:- the calculation of the percentages in 3.4 (5%) and in 3.5 (95%) on the basis of the ingredients of agricultural origin (instead of all ingredients excluding only salt and water);
- the marketing of product with in transition/conversion labelling containing more than one ingredient of agricultural origin.
a) the product satisfies the requirements of paragraphs 3.3(c), (d) (e), (f) and (g);b) the indications referring to organic production methods should only appear on the front panel as a reference to the approximate percentage of the total ingredients including additives but excluding salt and water;
c) the ingredients, appear in descending order (mass/mass) in the list of ingredients;
d) indications in the list of ingredients appear in the same colour and with an identical style and size of lettering as other indications in the list of ingredient.
3.7 Products of farms in transition to organic production methods may only be labelled as “transition to organic” after 12 months of production using organic methods providing that:
a) the requirements referred to in paragraphs 3.2 and 3.3 are fully satisfied;b) the indications referring to transition/conversion do not mislead the purchaser of the product regarding its difference from products obtained from farms and/or farm units which have fully completed the conversion period;
c) such indication take the form of words, such as “product under conversion to organic farming”, or similar words or phrase accepted by the competent authority of the country where the product is marketed, and must appear in a colour, size and style of lettering which is not more prominent than the sales description of the product;
d) foods composed of a single ingredient may be labelled as “transition to organic” on the principal display panel;
e) the labelling refers to the name and/or the code number of the official or officially approved certification body or authority to which the operator who has carried out the most recent preparation is subject.
3.8 The labelling of non-retail containers of product specified in paragraph 1.1 should meet the requirements set out in Annex 3, paragraph 10.
