Participatory Guarantee System - National Standards for Organic Production

Standard Requirements for Food processing, Handling and Storage General requirement

Any food processing, handling and storage of organic products, on-farm and/or off-farm or under hired facilities away from the farm can be certified under PGS, provided the entire operation is carried out under the supervision of PGS Group and the items/ materials to be processed are the direct produce of the PGS group. If required many PGS groups can make their federation and get their federation registered with RC for collective processing, handling and storage. Necessary guidelines for making federation and handling of products from different groups will be laid down by the concerned RC.

Storage

Organic products shall not be stored and transported together with inorganic products unless they are properly packed and labelled and physically separated from each other with no chances of contamination or co-mingling. Control measures should ensure that organic products do not come in contact with the in-organic products and prohibited substances during storage, transportation and processing.

No synthetic preservatives, chemicals, fumigants etc or storage aid shall be used. Use of controlled temperature, cooling, freezing, drying, humidity control through mechanical means and fumigation with nitrogen or carbon-di-oxide gas is permitted. Ethylene gas is permitted for ripening.

Ingredients, additives and processing aids

• All ingredients and additives of agriculture origin shall be PGS-organic.
  
• Water and salt may be used without any restriction.
  
• For the production of fermentation / microbiological products the medium shall be composed of organic ingredients.
  
• Commercial microbial formulations for use as inoculants in such processes can be used.
  
• In cases where ingredients of organic agriculture origin are not available or some ingredients of non-agriculture origin are to be used then the guidelines provided under NPOP be followed and the quantity of such non-agriculture additives should not exceed 5% of total dry weight (excluding water and salt) of the raw material.
  
• Use of genetically modified organisms or their products are prohibited
  
• Minerals, vitamins and similar other ingredients of chemical origin shall not be used.
  

Processing

• All processing equipments and machinery should be properly washed and made contamination free before using for organic processing.
  
• All processing equipments and filtration aids shall be free from contamination and shall not release any substance that may negatively affect the organic integrity
  
• Measures should be in place to prevent co-mingling and contamination of organic produce with non-organic.
  
• Services of NPOP certified processing units can be availed.
  
• Processes approved under PGS organic are: mechanical and physical, biological, smoking, extraction, precipitation and filtration. Extraction shall be done with water, ethanol, plant and animal oils, vinegar, carbon-di-oxide, nitrogen or carboxylic acids. All such solvents/ extraction liquid shall be of food grade.
  
• Irradiation is not allowed.

Packing and Labelling

• Packing material should not affect the organoleptic character of the product
  
• The description of the PGS group with PGS logo and unique ID code shall be clearly printed.
  
• Single ingredient products may be labelled as "PGS-Organic" when all standard requirements have been met and the produce has been declared PGS-organic.
  
• PGS In-conversion products may be labelled as "PGS-Green" when all standard requirements for declaring the Local PGS group under PGS In-conversion have been met and the produce has been declared as PGS-Green.
  
• In case of mixed/ processed products if minimum of 95% ingredients is PGS-organic the product may be labelled as PGS-Organic. If proportions of organic ingredients are between 95 and 70% the products can be labelled as "Made with PGS-organic ingredients", but in such cases PGS logo cannot be used.
  
• Only PGS Local groups and their duly authorized federations are allowed to use PGS Logo on the products, produced, processed and packed under their supervision.

Source :

Dr. K. Chandra, Director, National Centre of Organic Farming, Ghaziabad.
Dr. Jagat Singh, Regional Centre on Organic Farming, Bangalore.

Updated on : Nov 2014