U.S. Imposes Standards for Organic-Food Labeling

December 21, 2000
By MARIAN BURROS
The New York Times on the Web
http://www.nytimes.com

WASHINGTON, Dec. 20 The Department of Agriculture today announced
final adoption of the first standards that the federal government
has ever imposed for the labeling and processing of organic foods.

The new standards, which were ordered by Congress and then took
the department more than a decade to produce, ban the use of
irradiation, biotechnology and sewer-sludge fertilizer for any food
labeled organic.

The department planned to allow the use of all three methods when
it introduced proposed regulations in 1997. But after comment from
almost 300,000 people protesting their inclusion, the agency
withdrew that proposal and started over.

Other major provisions of the rules issued today ban synthetic
pesticides and fertilizers in the growing of organic food, and
antibiotics in meat labeled organic. These bans were a part of the
earlier proposal.

At a news conference held in the produce aisles of a local Fresh
Fields store, one of a nationwide chain of natural-foods
supermarkets, Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman called the new
regulations "the strongest and most comprehensive organic standard
in the world."

Katherine DiMatteo, a spokeswoman for the organic foods industry,
welcomed the regulations.

"The long wait for the final rule was worthwhile," said Ms.
DiMatteo, executive director of the Organic Trade Association.
"U.S.D.A. has delivered a strict organic standard that is a great
boost to the organic industry. In no way is this final rule less
than what the industry wanted."

The regulations come at a time of soaring popularity for organic
foods. Domestic sales have increased more than 20 percent annually
each year since 1990, and reached $6 billion last year.

The niche has become significant enough that large
conventional-food companies have been buying up smaller organic
companies. General Mills owns Cascadian Farm and Muir Glen
Tomatoes; Heinz owns Earth's Best Baby Food; J. M. Smucker sells
Santa Cruz and Knudsen juices.

Organics have also become an increasingly important factor in
overseas sales, although until now the European Union and Japan
have made it difficult for American exporters of those foods to do
business, because they do not want to deal with the 44 different
state and private organic certifying agencies in the United States.

When the new rules take effect, starting on Feb. 19, they will
have to deal with only one: the Agriculture Department. (Similarly
that existing patchwork of standards will be superseded by the new
regulations in the domestic market as well.)

"The rule will assist organic producers who want to export their
products," said Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont,
author of the law that called for the regulations.

While the Bush administration could try to overturn the rule,
which does not become fully effective until 2002, there is little
such expectation, given the importance of overseas sales and the
support for regulation among large numbers of organic- food
consumers.

The regulations divide organic labeling into four categories:

Products that are labeled "100 percent organic" must contain only
organic ingredients.

The ingredients of products labeled "organic" must be at least 95
percent organic by weight.

Processed products that contain at least 70 percent organic
ingredients may be labeled "made with organic ingredients," and as
many as three of those ingredients may be listed on the front of
the package. This is a stricter standard than one proposed earlier,
which would have required only 50 percent organic ingredients.

Processed products with less than 70 percent organic ingredients
may list those ingredients on the information panel but may not
carry the term "organic" anywhere on the front of the package.

Products meeting the requirements for "100 percent organic,"
"organic" and "made with organic ingredients" may display those
terms and the percentage of organic content on the front. And a
"U.S.D.A." seal may appear on products in the first two categories
(and in their advertisements), but not on products in the two
others.

As a concession to the National Food Processors Association, a
trade group made up mostly of conventional-food processors, the
Agriculture Department changed the organic seal from an originally
proposed shield like the one that goes on meat, eggs and other
products that are government-inspected to a circle.

The association had also asked the agency to put a disclaimer on
organic labels, so that they would say such food was no safer and
no more nutritious than conventional food. But the agency refused.

Tim Willard, the association's vice president for communications,
said: "I think the sense of the industry is that it is past time to
have consistent national standards for organic food. The challenge
for U.S.D.A. is to make sure consumers don't think the seal of
approval means that the food is safer or more nutritious. We don't
want them to think, `I'm buying organic and therefore I don't have
to pay attention to nutrition,' or that the label is a license to
mishandle the food."