§ Mr. PickthallTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what checks are made on imported foods labelled as organic to ensure that they do not include residues which would not be allowed in UK-produced organic foods.[135673]
§ Mr. Morley[holding answer 31 October 2000]: The authentication of organic foods is achieved on the basis of production standards rather than residues checks. Under Regulation (EEC) 2092/91 all food produced within the EU for sale as organic must comply with the production requirements of the Regulation and be produced by an operator certified by a recognised organic certification body and subject to annual inspection by them.
In the case of imports from outside the EU, the European Commission has listed six countries which have demonstrated to the Commission that they have equivalent standards and controls: Argentina, Australia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Israel and Switzerland. Imports may take place freely, although the imports must be registered with an organic certification body. For other countries 783W outside the EU, registered EU importers may make application to the authorities in their member state providing full details of the standards and control procedures to be used. An authorisation to import will be issued only if it can be shown that these are equivalent to the EC Regulation. The UK Register of Organic Food Standards (UKROFS) is the body that undertakes the issue of such authorisations in the UK.