The Safe Foods for Canadian Regulations have been in place since January 15, 2019 and the transition period to the new COR Operating Manual v.17 ended on July 15, 2019.
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CFIA Memo was issued July 29, 2019 as a
CFIA Policy on publicly available information that must be implemented by all COR CBs by September 30, 2020. The CFIA requires the CBs to publish the name of organic operator, address and contact information of operator, certification status of the operator, list of certified products and categories under which the products are certified. The CBs are required to publish the above information using an online directory such as a searchable database or Excel document and be responsible for keeping this information up to date.
Clarification on EU/Canada Organic Equivalency arrangement was recently issued by CFIA. This notice relates to the interpretation of what a processed product is according to EU regulation. Products imported into the EU and certified as organic to an EU Equivalent programme can be sent to Canada as organic only if they are processed in the EU according to the EU definition of processing as in Reg EU852/2004. Products that are only stored or traded in the EU cannot be exported to Canada as organic under the equivalency arrangement.
The public review of Canada Organic Standards has started and farmers, processors, consumers and other interested parties were invited to comment on the proposed amendments to the Standard. Canadian General Standards Board is gathering the comments, and these will be received until September 30, 2019. This process will culminate with the publication of the 2020 version of the Canadian Organic Standards by November 2020. More information on the process can be found at Organic Federation of
Canada website.
EU: News
Clarification on use of sub-contracted bodies for inspection clarification.
DG AGRI has recently confirmed that the control bodies included in Annex IV of Regulation EC 1235/2008 may only use sub-contracted bodies for inspection that are recognised as per Article 33.2 or Article 33.3 of Regulation EC 834/2007 for the respective scope.
Annual meeting of DG AGRI
IOAS will be participating in the annual meeting of DG AGRI with conformity assessment bodies and recognised control bodies, taking place on 7th and 8th October 2019 in Brussels.
Textile Exchange announced the release of the Responsible Down Standard (RDS), version 3.0.
The most substantial revision since the 2014 launch of the Standard, that presently covers more than 500 million birds.
Key Changes to the Standard, include:
• Euthanasia of sick or inured birds in order to prevent suffering is now mandatory on the farm.
• Stunning before slaughter is now mandatory at the slaughter site.
• Stronger criteria related to handling, record keeping, and training of workers.
• Observation of parent farms in industrial goose supply chains are now required, where the highest risk of live-plucking occurs.
• All minor requirements are now mandatory (previously only 50% were required).
• Restructuring of the document to provide clearer guidance for farms, suppliers, brands, and certification bodies.
A copy of the updated Standard online is available from the TE RDS website.
Textile Exchange Sustainability Conference
The 2019 Textile Exchange Sustainability Conference will be held on October 15-18, 2019 in Vancouver and Jenny Karall from the IOAS will be attending.
The criteria for the NATRUE standard 3.8 has been published and contains an update of Table 1, which lists the formulation requirements to be met by every product certified to the NATRUE criteria. Two significant main changes are a) percentage of natural and derived natural ingredients in formulae and b) percentage of water in oil products.
GLOBALG.A.P. Produce Safety Assurance Standard.
The new Produce Safety Assurance standard is a subset of the GLOBALG.A.P. Integrated Farm Assurance (IFA) Standard and consists of food safety and traceability control points. The Produce Safety Assurance Standard is an updated and renamed version of the GLOBALG.A.P. Produce Safety Standard (PSS).
Designed for specific regions where producers and their customers require only a food safety solution, the GLOBALG.A.P. Produce Safety Assurance Standard V5 covers the certification of food safety and traceability elements throughout a product’s entire agricultural production process, from before the plant is in the ground (origin and propagation material control points) to the packaging.
GOTS published information on the use of Aniline.
GOTS have clarified their position on the use of any chemical input that releases carcinogenic arylamine compounds MAK III categories 1,2,3,4. This includes Aniline which is classified as MAK III Category 4 chemical. For full details please see the GOTS paper.
Alliance for Organic Integrity
The newly formed Alliance for Organic Integrity established by IOAS as a separate, sister organisation is seeking Partners, and Board and Advisory Board members to join in shaping and implementing an ambitious range of work activities. Our aim is to implement projects that will encourage best practice inspection and certification and to develop tools to more effectively combat fraud. We want to achieve this with the combined energy of a true Alliance. If your organisation or you as an individual have ideas, time, energy or funds, or indeed existing projects, and want to contribute to our mission and workplans (see here for background) please contact Jan Deane for more information.
Finally, its a first for IOAS Certification Bodies...
IOAS client EcoControl of Germany was the first IOAS client to achieve accreditation for ISO 22716: Cosmetics — Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) — Guidelines on Good Manufacturing Practices. While Japan Organic & Natural Foods Association is the first IOAS client to have applied for Global.G.A.P. accreditation under the IOAS.
IOAS Annual Report
Our Annual Report is also now available on line. To know more about the activities IOAS undertakes and our plans for the future download our July 2018-19 IOAS Annual Report.
Kind regards
The IOAS Team
