Luxembourg, 12/06/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 12 June, EU agriculture ministers reached a majority political agreement on new rules for the production and labelling of organic foodstuffs. Hungary, Italy, Greece and Belgium voted against the text, which they did not feel was strict enough on GMOs.
Under the new regulation, the use of the EU organic logo will be compulsory, but national or private logos may be used alongside it. This logo will be granted to foodstuffs at least 95% of the ingredients of which are organically grown. For non-organic products, operators will be able to list the organic ingredients on the packaging. The restaurant and canteen sector does not fall within the scope of the new regulation. The use of genetically modified organisms will continue to be banned in organic products. The agri-food industry will be able, however, to use processing aids, such as additives and enzymes, produced from GMOs, but only if there are no non-transgenic equivalents available on the market. As the European Commission called for, accidental contamination of foodstuffs by GMOs, up to the Community cap of 0.9% of GMOs which applies to conventional foods, will be tolerated. (lc)