Mumbai: More than 100 complaints were registered against fake organic products in the past three months with the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), leading it to recently introduce a logo, known as ‘Jaivik Bharat,’ which will help customers identify authentic organic food items. According to a senior
FSSAI official, the logo has been specifically designed to set the standards of organic farming and no dealer can sell an organic product without the logo.
The move came after FSSAI received several complaints about fake organic products in the markets. To fight this, a portal has been designed, which will carry details about the state-wise break up of organic products, its buyers and suppliers. The portal has been jointly developed by the FSSAI in collaboration with the
Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) and Participatory Guarantee System for India (PGS-India) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
Deputy Director, FSSAI, Mr V.K Panchal said, “An unified logo is an identity mark to distinguish between original organic products and non-organic ones, supported with the tag line ‘Jaivik Bharat’ at the bottom. It makes for an easy identification of Organic Food from India.” The logo is green in colour and has a circle with a leaf and a tick mark on it.
Mr Panchal said that fraud and mis-labelling occurs when a food business operator marks a product as organic even though it contains non-organic ingredients or where the organic production standards are not adhered to in the production process. Therefore, it becomes important to check if the food labelled as ‘organic’ is genuinely organic.
Standards to maintain
- Conversion of land for organic farming must be done.
- All inputs to the farm should be natural.
- No genetically modified inputs or irradiation technology should be used.
- Integrity of all processes, physical, biological and mechanical, must be maintained at all times.
- There must be no contamination of any kind.
- The farm should follow sustainable practices.
