The document was adopted by the State Duma in the first reading in November 2022. The second reading of the document is scheduled for July this year.
Recall that organic products in Russia are protected by a special law that came into force on January 1, 2020: manufacturers have the right to place “organic” labels on their products only if they have a certificate of conformity. This is a document confirming that national and international standards for the production of organic products were observed in the production of the product. The certificate is issued after verification by special bodies accredited by Rosaccreditation (among such organizations, including Roskachestvo). For labeling, organic producers must use the organic product mark of a single sample, approved by the Ministry of Agriculture. A company that does not have such a certificate and is not included in the Unified State Register of Organic Products of the Ministry of Agriculture cannot sell its products as organic (that is, produced without the use of agrochemicals, pesticides, growth stimulants).
Certification is voluntary. Manufacturers, in order to attract more buyers, can optionally provide consumers with information about the improved properties of the product by placing the “organic” label on the product, the National Organic Union previously explained.
Today on the shelves of stores you can see many different products with the words "eco", "bio", "green products" on the labels. But not all of these products are organic. In order to prevent manufacturers from misleading consumers, senators have developed a bill that will recognize the identity of the concepts "organic", "biodynamic", "biological", "ecological", "environmentally friendly", "green" and similar abbreviations "eco" , "bio".
As follows from the bill, such words can only be used by organic producers who have passed the appropriate certification. If the requirements for organic products are not met in the production of such products released after the entry into force of the amendments to the law, they will be withdrawn from circulation.
The amendments introduced to the project by the Cabinet of Ministers contain a number of exceptions. For example, the word "green" can be included on the label if it means the color of the product or the degree of its ripeness.
In addition, the government proposed to exclude from the law products with the prefix "bio", if its use is allowed by the technical regulations, regardless of the method of production. Such products can include, for example, "biokefir", "bioregion", "bioyogurt", explained in "Rusprodsoyuz". This is due to the fact that the adoption of the bill may lead to the disappearance from the shelves of bio-kefir, bio-yogurt and other dairy products that have not been certified, but whose production technology allows the use of the “bio” label. In the case of fermented milk products, this means that they are enriched with probiotic microorganisms or prebiotics, which fully complies with the relevant technical regulations of the Customs Union “On the safety of milk and dairy products”. A ban on the use of the prefix "eco" and "bio" without certification would deprive the consumer of information that the product contains components important for health, and would negatively affect its availability, the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs noted.