<\/u><\/u>Rule increases certification of more supply chain businesses and boosts authority for inspections, record-keeping, traceability, and fraud prevention<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n
By Physician\u2019s Briefing Staff HealthDay Reporter<\/b><\/p>\n
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FRIDAY, Jan. 20, 2023 (HealthDay News) — Organic food will soon have to comply with stricter labeling guidelines under new requirements announced Thursday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).<\/p>\n
In what the Organic Trade Organization (OTA) called the biggest change since the USDA organic program was first founded in 1990, the new requirements<\/a> include that all imported organic food be certified by the USDA National Organic Program.<\/p>\n The rule increases certification of more supply chain businesses and boosts authority for inspections, record-keeping, traceability, and fraud prevention. The rule also builds on the USDA definitions for organic food<\/a>, which must use “natural substances and physical, mechanical, or biologically based farming methods to the fullest extent possible.”<\/p>\n The new program will start in March, and companies must comply within a year. The OTA had lobbied for the changes and said in a statement<\/a> the regulation “will do much to deter and detect organic fraud and protect organic integrity throughout the supply chain.”<\/p>\n Organic food does big business in the United States, where customers spent $63 billion in 2021 for food free of pesticides and contaminants, the Associated Press<\/em> reported.<\/p>\n Working to ensure customers were getting what they paid for, the U.S. Department of Justice recently indicted those alleged to have been involved in a multimillion-dollar fraud operation to export nonorganic grain to the United States with the intent of selling it as a certified organic product, the AP<\/em> reported.<\/p>\n