USDA REVIEWING PUBLIC COMMENTS ON PROPOSED RULE TO STRENGTHEN ORGANIC ENFORCEMENT
In October, USDA closed public comments on its efforts to expand the National Organic Program’s (NOP) oversight and enforcement of the production, handling, and sale of organic products. More than 1,511 formal comments were filed on its proposed Strengthening Organic Enforcement (SOE) rule.
The proposed rule would institute the most widespread changes in regulations surrounding organic products since legislation was first established by the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990. The proposed amendments, advanced by USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Services (AMS), would change several sections of the Act’s regulations, with the goals of protecting the integrity of the complex organic supply chain and improving consumer and industry trust in the organic label. The proposed rule seeks to build consistent certification practices to deter and detect organic fraud and improve product traceability.
Among the topics defined in this proposed rule are:
- Applicability of the regulations and exceptions from organic certification
- Import certificates
- Record keeping and product traceability
- Certifying agent personnel qualifications and training
- Standardized certificates of organic operation
- Unannounced on-site inspections of certified operations
- Oversight of certification activities
- Foreign conformity assessments systems
- Certification of grower group operations
- Labeling of non-retail containers
- Annual update requirements
- Compliance and appeals process
- Calculating organic content of multi-ingredient products
Total sales of organic agricultural products in the U.S. increased from $3.4 billion in 1997 to $55.1 billion in 2019. According to USDA, stronger oversight is required to protect both farmers and consumers who are seeking more and more organic options. Fraud prevention, increased data reporting requirements, and focusing enforcement activities on higher-risk locations are among the desired outcomes of this heightened enforcement. The proposed regulation would implement new oversight authority provided in the 2018 Farm Bill. According to federalregister.gov, “The absence of direct enforcement authority over some entities in the organic supply chain, in combination with price premiums for organic products, presents the opportunity and incentive for organic fraud, which has been discovered in the organic sector by the NOP and organic stakeholders.” USDA estimates that fraud in the organic program – now estimated at about 2% of all sales – would be reduced by half with the amendments being proposed. The organic foods industry has voiced support for the proposed measures while also raising its concerns about the need for more details on these changes, the level of resources being developed and dedicated to increased enforcement, and the possibility of flexibility in aspects of the rule for various organic operations.
When the final rule is published by USDA, it’s anticipated that businesses will have a full year for compliance.
For more information go to: federalregister.gov