With varying degrees of enthusiasm, food processing companies and trade groups are applauding the national organic foods standards that go into effect this month, three years after the USDA first proposed rules to implement the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990.
Producers, distributors and processors of organic food products cheered the standard, noting it will resolve the current chaotic situation created by more than 40 organic certification agencies and should boost exports of U.S. organic products. "We have had a lot of problems because of the lack of reciprocity between certifiers, and now they have to accept each other's certifications," according to Kim Burton of Smucker Quality Beverages, Chico, Calif., and a member of USDA's National Organic Standards Board. "For processors, that's the most important part of the new standards rule."