Conference of the Anti-Fraud-Initiative
"Residues in organic production – sufficient indicators for fraud?"
AFI, the Anti Fraud Initiative, organised a multistakeholder meeting of representatives of the organic trade, CBs, laboratories, sector organisations and representatives of the European Parliament, some member state COP members, the EU Commission.
The aim of the event was to discuss the difficulties the organic sector is currently facing with the implementation of articles 28 and 29 of the Regulation (EU) 2018/848, in particular the value of residue testing for detecting the use of unauthorised substances and the evaluating effectiveness of operators’ precautionary measures. There was a much needed exchange of views, of experiences.
The sector expressed its frustration by demonstrating how often irrelevant findings are causing the trade to be delayed and disrupted. Some of the things that were said: the future, the expansion of the European organic market should be demand driven. Consumers, also organic consumers do not know very much about how their food is produced and even less about how it is controlled and what is done in case of problems. There is often doubt about the products’ integrity, whether they get value for their money. The sector has a communication problem. Different from some national logos there was little investment, by governments or the private sector, to explain what organic is and what not.
It was a relief to hear that the Commission is not after residue free organic product. The representative of DG Agri Henri Delanghe explained how the current text originates from the earlier regulation, was formulated in more depth to achieve a harmonised approach among the member states as regards action in case of detection of residues and extension of the need to install precautionary measures. He reiterated that there must be an investigation, that all operators must have precautionary measures in place, somehow appreciated the problems the early implementation was causing.
A representative of a lab talked about analytical variability among the labs, that the presence of a pesticide is based on the presence of certain metabolites, broken down parts of a pesticide, that sometimes could come from somewhere else. That it would be better to sample from the non-harvested parts of the plant, what is treated, that the scope of the analyses should be based on an evaluation of prohibited substances used in conventional agriculture rather than a broad spectrum analyses of hundreds of materials that are not used, while missing out on some molecules that could be used.
Alex Beck offered a format that was developed in Germany that works relatively well and could be used also by other member states. There was talk about proportionate, what substantiated means, about intelligent investigations. The need for more result sharing. The focus should be on learning rather than de-certification. In that sense there is not enough sharing of information, within and among countries. At the end there was mention that more multistakeholder meetings should be organised, in major importing countries, with another AFI conference in Brussels in one year time, to discuss progress in effective and efficient approaches to implement art. 28 and 29, to achieve harmonisation among member states by 2025.
Not too much was said about phosphonic acid which is the prime example where a lot of senseless efforts are spent by the trade, CBs, authorities to explain traces that have nothing to do with the use of prohibited substances by the organic operator. Not too much was said how farmers should have precautionary measures in place for irrelevant findings. Wasting a lot of time and resources while the focus should be the detection of fraudulent behaviour.
Towards the end, the Commission repeated a few statements that are taken on board by the organisation who’s reflecting now on the next step
Presentations in detail
What do consumers expect from organic food?
Prof Katrin Zander, University of Kassel (DE) presentation as pdf
Sampling and Analysis as an Inspection Tool: Possibilities and Limitations. A Lab Perspective
Hans Braeckman, Primoris (BE) presentation as pdf
Sampling and Analysis as an Inspection Tool: Possibilities and Limitations. A Control Body Perspective
Jochen Neuendorff, GfRS (DE) presentation as pdf
Fraud in organic: Which investigation tools are successful?
Christian Novak, LfL (DE) presentation as pdf
A priority-based approach to identify source and cause of pesticide residues
Tom Nizet, Authent GmbH (BE) presentation as pdf
Successful investigations using residue analytics at the level of an operator
Jan Dellwisch, Kloth & Köhnken (DE) presentation as pdf
Successfully directing Ofis Notification in Case of Detection of Residues in Organic Food at the level of a Certification Body
Roberto Maresca, CCPB (IT) presentation as pdf