Thoughts on Europe's Organic certification logo?

[MarkKol]

I was looking at organic food delivery services and noticed "organic" food usually contains a green certification logo on the packaging, I googled it and it seems pretty cool. the food that contains it is usually a lot more expensive compared to food that doesn't have it slapped on the packaging. Can this be trusted?

Quote

The organic logo can only be used on products that have been certified as organic by an authorised control agency or body. This means that they have fulfilled strict conditions on how they must be produced, processed, transported and stored. The logo can only be used on products when they contain at least 95% organic ingredients and additionally, respect further strict conditions for the remaining 5%.

EU Website, by the way... organic food delivery, a life saver. 

Edited May 22, 2022 by MarkKol

[Osaid]

Can it be trusted? Probably. There are also different organic labels, like for example I've seen USDA organic and I believe that is quite rigorous. It might be worth researching whatever different labels you find.

[Yarco]

I don't know about EU, but in North America you can put human waste on crops and still have them be labelled organic. There is no guarantee that organic foods are pesticide-free either. There's a lot of devilry in the labelling of stuff "organic" and you'd need to really deeply research it yourself.

[Danioover9000]

   EU and UK based organics are generally more trust worthy than the USA, Russia and China based organic products, especially if it comes from bigger companies.

[mostly harmless]

The EU Bio label is only trustworthy to some extend. In practice, it is probably not bad, test for pesticides did not have problematic results. But there is potential for problems.

It allows the manufacturer to use non-certified regular ingredients if they don't have enough organic grade ingredients available. That sounds like a joke but it's apparently in the law. That's basically legalized fraud. To what extend it actually happens, I don't know. A few days ago, I watched a report on blueberry imports. These imports were from overseas and bought in Germany. The berries were sent to a lab. Result: No pesticides in the EU Bio certified berries. So it's probably not that bad but it does not make me trust the label more that fraud is legal, potentially.

Producers outside the EU can still get certified for the EU Bio label. I see potential for fraud here because the producer chooses and pays the people who are supposed to control them. It is obvious that this can be a problem. I always look where the stuff is from.

The EU Bio label also allows producers to have some conventional production aside their organic production. 

 

The German BIOLAND, DEMETER, and NATURLAND labels are more strict and I trust these more than the EU label. Producers must only have 100% organic output, no 'conventional' business in the same production facility allows. Bread production: No enzymes and ascorbic acids allowed. Juices: No concentrates + water allowed, only direct juice (100% what was in the fruit, vegetable). Animals must get 100% organic food, must have more space, cutting the horns of cows is not allowed (DEMETER), etc..

Probably the strictest of all labels worldwide is the German DEMETER label. 

https://en.bluefarm.co/blogs/theblue/bio-siegel-im-vergleich

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioland

https://demeter.net/

https://www.naturland.de/en/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 31, 2022 by mostly harmless

[MarkKol]

@mostly harmless Thanks for the info

I visited Germany a couple of months ago, I mostly saw Bio & Bioland products. Never heard of DEMETER and their certification looks more like a brand logo than a certification lo. 

 

10 hours ago, mostly harmless said:

It allows the manufacturer to use non-certified regular ingredients if they don't have enough organic grade ingredients available. That sounds like a joke but it's apparently in the law. That's basically legalized fraud.

Isn't it silly? having to worry about people putting shit in your food in the 21 century? You can't trust anyone because everyone just wants money... 

[mostly harmless]

I do not trust anything from China, no matter what logo is on it (and it could be the EU Bio logo).

[MarkKol]

@mostly harmless Why?

 

Isn't it @mostly harmless food?

Edited June 2, 2022 by MarkKol

[mostly harmless]

It seems to be common in China for people to make money with zero regard for other people.

Fraud regarding organic food seems obvious to me.

Edited June 2, 2022 by mostly harmless