The new regulations would mean that only human food products could be certified
suck wind you sick mofos!!
icensed Producers of cannabis in Canada may soon be prohibited from certifying and labelling their products as organic. An anticipated move by the executive of the federal government will take Canada’s Organic Products Regulations and combine them with other regulations into a single document called the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations. The move was announced in 2012 by the then-incumbent Conservative government and passed voting through Parliament that year. The current Liberal federal government appears to be moving forward after a recently-concluded industry comment period.
Farming industry news outlet Alberta Farmer Express recently noted that such changes would move the regulation of organic products from the Canada Agricultural Products Act to the Safe Foods for Canadians Act. The move would bar from organic certification any non-food items, such as organic textiles, pet food, natural health products, body care, and yes—cannabis products.
The Alberta Farmer Express cited a news release from Canadian Organic Growers as condemning the move.
“Our organic supply chain is not prepared for these dramatic changes and they are not necessary in maintaining organic integrity,” a release by COG reportedly said.
The move will likely hamper the ability of a wide range of companies to obtain organic certification on their products, as the new regulations would require companies to also certify the transportation and storage of the goods as organic.
Currently, the Canadian Food and Inspection Agency permits approximately twenty different certification bodies across the country to certify consumer products as organic. Goods that claim to be “organic” or display the Canadian Organic logo must be certified by one of the twenty entities. These certification bodies are in turn monitored by conformity verification bodies.
In order to receive certification, producers of goods must go through a process of verification and compliance with a certification body. Guidance documents and an operating manual released by the Canadian Food and Inspection Agency detail the steps certification bodies must take to verify compliance, including on-site inspections and additional unannounced inspections. A certification body must only issue a certification if all the ingredients and inputs have been certified as organic.
This wouldn’t be the first time trouble has hit the cannabis industry with regards to organic certification. In 2017, licensed producer Organigram had its organic certification temporarily suspended as it came to light that some of their batches of product contained trace amounts of the unapproved pesticides myclobutanil “and/or” bifenazate, resulting in a Type II recall for some of the company’s products. As the news began to surface, EcoCert, the certification body that had certified Organigram, temporarily suspended Organigram’s organic status. It remains unclear how Organigram received organic certification while using unapproved chemical pesticides, or when they might successfully recertify their cannabis products with a certification body. Their website continues to market their cannabis as “growing organic.”
suck wind you sick mofos!!
icensed Producers of cannabis in Canada may soon be prohibited from certifying and labelling their products as organic. An anticipated move by the executive of the federal government will take Canada’s Organic Products Regulations and combine them with other regulations into a single document called the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations. The move was announced in 2012 by the then-incumbent Conservative government and passed voting through Parliament that year. The current Liberal federal government appears to be moving forward after a recently-concluded industry comment period.
Farming industry news outlet Alberta Farmer Express recently noted that such changes would move the regulation of organic products from the Canada Agricultural Products Act to the Safe Foods for Canadians Act. The move would bar from organic certification any non-food items, such as organic textiles, pet food, natural health products, body care, and yes—cannabis products.
The Alberta Farmer Express cited a news release from Canadian Organic Growers as condemning the move.
“Our organic supply chain is not prepared for these dramatic changes and they are not necessary in maintaining organic integrity,” a release by COG reportedly said.
The move will likely hamper the ability of a wide range of companies to obtain organic certification on their products, as the new regulations would require companies to also certify the transportation and storage of the goods as organic.
Currently, the Canadian Food and Inspection Agency permits approximately twenty different certification bodies across the country to certify consumer products as organic. Goods that claim to be “organic” or display the Canadian Organic logo must be certified by one of the twenty entities. These certification bodies are in turn monitored by conformity verification bodies.
In order to receive certification, producers of goods must go through a process of verification and compliance with a certification body. Guidance documents and an operating manual released by the Canadian Food and Inspection Agency detail the steps certification bodies must take to verify compliance, including on-site inspections and additional unannounced inspections. A certification body must only issue a certification if all the ingredients and inputs have been certified as organic.
This wouldn’t be the first time trouble has hit the cannabis industry with regards to organic certification. In 2017, licensed producer Organigram had its organic certification temporarily suspended as it came to light that some of their batches of product contained trace amounts of the unapproved pesticides myclobutanil “and/or” bifenazate, resulting in a Type II recall for some of the company’s products. As the news began to surface, EcoCert, the certification body that had certified Organigram, temporarily suspended Organigram’s organic status. It remains unclear how Organigram received organic certification while using unapproved chemical pesticides, or when they might successfully recertify their cannabis products with a certification body. Their website continues to market their cannabis as “growing organic.”
