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News - News/ Updates of IFOAM EU Working Fields - Organic Wine - EduOFP Concept and Forum meeting - Stevia

Written by Niels Thrap

News/ Updates of IFOAM EU Working Fields - Organic Wine - EduOFP Concept and Forum meeting - Stevia

Source: ifoam.org

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Organic Wine

Organic Wine through in the sulfite reduction in organic wine processing. After a long procedure with two proposals from the ORWINE investigation blocked by some Member States in the Council through a minority, a new proposal based on residual sugar content (as suggested by IFOAM EU Group in its position paper on organic wine making rules) has been approved by the COM and sent to the SCOF. In general the proposed rules will imply a 50mg/l sulfite reduction in wines with <5g/l residual sugar and 30mg/l sulfite reduction in other wines. The proposal is now sent for a consultation to the WTO (Technical Barriers to Trade) and will be presented to the SCOF for adoption in February. The new rules would apply as of 1st August 2012.

EduOFP Concept and Forum meeting

The project EduOFP Concept & Forum (European Education Concept and Forum for Organic Food Processors) has begun this autumn with two meetings in Amersfoort (NL) in September and in Berlin (DE) in December. This project addresses the challenge to improve education in organic food processing and need of the European organic processing sector to constantly increase its competence in changing legal environment, technological development and consumer expectations. The project aims to create European concept of training for the organic food processing sector on relevant topics (e.g. legislation, residues, market, labelling, environmental performance, etc.) and will cover broadly all employees in the organic food processing sector. A European exchange forum for the organic processing sector and on education and training in organic processing will be established.

IFOAM EU Group is coordinating the project in partnership with national organic processing and trade associations (Synabio from France, VBP from the Netherlands, Organic Food Finland, Polska Ekologia from Poland and AoeL from Germany) and Forum Berufsbildung, a German non-profit adult education institution specialised in further education for the health, nutrition and natural food sector. The IFOAM EU Group is joining the project with the aim to promote the concept to the wider European organic sector looking for potential partners to implement this initiative and to further disseminate the project’s results among additional countries.

During the last meeting in Berlin the working plan of the project was designed. In the coming six months two seminars are on the agenda, including one on the handling of pesticide residues in organic (10-11 April 2012 in Warsaw, Poland), and one on international cooperation in the organic sector (11-12 June 2012 in Helsinki, Finland).

Stevia

Since November 2011 the European Commission has allowed the use of steviolglycosides as a sweetener in food processing, while the use of stevia leaves and extracts as novel food remains forbidden. Currently, steviolglycosides are derived from the stevia plant using ion exchange resins, a technique that is highly controversial in organic processing. Moreover, steviolglycoside (E940) is an additive that is not on the list (Annex VIII of Regulation (EC) 889/2008) of additives that can be used in organic processing. The organic sector is very interested in using stevia derivatives as a sweetener because of its exceptional health characteristics, but the question is how it should be used. Can stevia derivatives be allowed in organic without any limitation, or only as produced from organic raw materials and produced without ion exchange? What about the process of stevia purification and the use of heavy processing techniques?

The IFOAM EU Specialist Group on Organic Processing is discussing the subject and soon might prepare a proposal for an IFOAM EU Group position.