The USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) proposes amending the USDA organic regulations to strengthen oversight and enforcement of the production, handling and sale of organic agricultural products.
According to the agency, the proposed amendments are intended to protect integrity in the organic supply chain and build consumer and industry trust in the USDA organic label by strengthening organic control systems, improving farm-to-market traceability and providing robust enforcement of the USDA organic regulations.
This proposed rule would amend several sections of the USDA organic regulations, 7 CFR part 205, to strengthen oversight of the production, handling, certification, marketing and sale of organic agricultural products as established by the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990 (OFPA).
Topics addressed in the proposed rule include:
- Applicability of the regulations and exemptions from organic certification
- National Organic Program Import Certificates
- Recordkeeping and product traceability
- Certifying agent personnel qualifications and training
- Standardized certificates of organic operation
- Unannounced on-site inspections of certified operations
- Oversight of certification activities
- Foreign conformity assessment systems
- Certification of grower group operations
- Labeling of nonretail containers
- Annual update requirements for certified operations
- Compliance and appeals processes
- Calculating organic content of multi-ingredient products
