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Organic certification is the only way to guarantee that the product is ‘Organic’. Producers cannot use the term ‘Organic’ legally without certification. To bypass this legal requirement for certification, various alternative approaches, using currently undefined terms like "natural" instead of "organic", are
emerging.
Organic certification is a certification process for producers of organic food and other organic agricultural products. In India, APEDA regulates the certification of organic products as per National Standards for Organic Production. In general, any business directly involved in food production can be certified, including seed suppliers, farmers, food processors, retailers and restaurants. Requirements involve a set of production standards for growing, storage, processing, packaging and shipping that include:
avoidance of most synthetic chemical inputs (e.g. fertilizer, pesticides, antibiotics, food additives, etc), genetically modified organisms, irradiation, and the use of sewage sludge;
use of farmland that has been free from chemicals for a number of years (often, three or more);
keeping detailed written production and sales records (audit trail);
maintaining strict physical separation of organic products from non-certified products;
undergoing periodic on-site inspections.
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