A public advocacy group says Canadian consumers put too much faith in organic food labels.
Option Consommateurs said shoppers attach more credibility to certified organic products than they should.
The Montreal-based consumer rights organization recently conducted a study that concluded people are “poorly protected” by Canadian measures dealing with organics.
Focus group sessions in Toronto and Ottawa revealed that the vast majority of consumers believe that “because a product is labelled organic it must invariably be so.
“We found that people were surprised that the Canadian system was not mandatory. They were really surprised about that,” said Marie-France Huot, Option Consommateurs’ agriculture and food analyst.
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She said Quebec has a strong system compared to the rest of the country, which operates under myriad standards.
Mike Leclair, the federal government official in charge of the organic file, agreed consumer confusion exists in many parts of the country over what is meant by the words “certified organic.”
But despite the different standards, he said the system is not rife with fraud because most of them meet the minimum requirements of Canada’s national standard adopted in 1999. That standard, which has been under revision for more than two years, was presented to the industry for a second ballot on June 24. Results of the vote should be known in August.
“I’m fairly comfortable that it will pass,” said Leclair, Agriculture Canada’s assistant director of horticulture.
Option Consommateurs said when compared to standards in the United States and the European Union, Canada’s system has glaring inadequacies:
- The current national standard is voluntary and outdated.
- There is no regulation governing the labelling of organic products.
- Only two of 46 Canadian certification bodies are accredited by a government-recognized authority.
- Imports of organic products are not controlled.
The group recommend that the word organic and its derivatives be strictly protected in a new mandatory national standard and that a single logo be adopted for products marketed in Canada.
It is also calling for federal legislation to govern the marketing of organic products and for certifying bodies to be accredited by a recognized Canadian authority such as the Standards Council of Canada.
Leclair said the combination of a new standard and new regulations to govern it should satisfy many of the consumer group’s concerns.
Although the proposed new standard would still be voluntary, it will in essence become mandatory through an organic regulation being developed in conjunction with the standard. How that regulation looks will depend on industry input. Leclair hopes to present a proposed new regulation to the federal agriculture minister in the fall.
One option is to regulate a national organic logo. Anybody who uses the logo on food products would have to live up to the requirements of the revised national standard, including importers.
“Or you can regulate the use of the word ‘organic,’ which is a whole other ball game because now you’re regulating every claim,” Leclair said.
Monitoring that broader definition would be more difficult and expensive to enforce. Many industry players have indicated they want to keep the costs of regulation as low as possible. When it comes to accreditation, government regulators will likely recognize only bodies that have ISO-65 status, Leclair said.
One of the driving forces behind developing a new national organic standard and regulation is to get on the EU’s list of approved countries by Dec. 31, 2005.
Some industry and government officials have serious doubts whether Canada will be able to meet that deadline but Leclair remained optimistic.
“We’ve still got a year and a half to go. I think we can do it.”
If Canada falls short there is a fallback plan, but he wouldn’t divulge what that is.
