India: APEDA bans 5 organic certifying firms after being blacklisted by the European Union

The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) has fined five organic certifying agencies for being blacklisted from certifying organic food that was exported from India. The accreditation of one of these firms was also suspended for a year while four other agencies were barred from registering any new processor or exporter for organic products certification. This move by APEDA was taken after October 5 when the European Commission (EC) had proposed to blacklist five certification firms from certifying organic food exported from India due to them failing to meet the regulatory standards for the presence of Ethylene Oxide (ETO). These are the organizations that were banned: OneCert International Pvt Ltd APEDA which is the supervising authority for organic certification fined OneCert a total of Rs. 5 lakh, because four of its exporter’s organic sesame, hulled sesame, white sesame, amaranth, and flax seeds shipments were found to be in violation of ...