New Draft Regulations on Organic Production (October 2001)
Section
1: Definitions
In these regulations, unless inconsistent with the
context, a word or expression to which a meaning has been assigned shall have
the corresponding meaning, and --
"additive" means an enrichment, supplement or other
substance which may be added to a foodstuff to affect its keeping quality,
consistency, colour, taste, smell or other technical property;
"agricultural products" means any product
or commodity, raw or processed, from agricultural origin that is marketed for
human consumption (excluding water, salt and additives) or animal feed;
"approval" means the procedure by which the Executive
Officer evaluates and gives a formal recognition that the inspection and
certification programme of a certifying organisation complies with the
requirements of these regulations;
"audit" means a systematic and functionally
independent examination to determine whether activities and related results
comply with planned objectives;
"certification" means the procedure by which approved
certifying organisations provide written or equivalent assurance that a product,
process or service is in conformity with certain standards;
"certification mark" means a mark or a symbol, that has been
registered by the Executive Officer, indicating that compliance with these
standards has been verified;
"certification programme" means an approved
system of rules, procedures and management for carrying out certification;
"certifying
organisation"
means an approved organisation performing certification;
"conventional" means any material, production or
processing practice that is not certified "organic" or "organic
in conversion";
"crop rotation" means the practice of alternating the
species or families of annual and biennial crops grown on a specific field in a
planned pattern or sequence so as to break weed, pest and disease cycles and to
improve soil fertility and organic matter content;
"Executive Officer" means the officer designated under
section 2(1) of the Act;
"factory farming" means industrial management systems that
are heavily reliant on veterinary and feed inputs not permitted in organic
agriculture;
"genetically modified organisms and products"
means organisms or products produced through techniques in which the genetic
material has been altered in a way that does not occur naturally by mating and
or natural recombination;
"ingredient" means any substance including a food
additive used in the manufacture or preparation of a food, or present in the
final product, although possibly in a modified form;
"inspection" means the examination of food systems
for control of food, raw material, production, processing, and distribution
including in-process and finished product testing, in order to verify that they
conform to requirements;
"irradiation" means high energy emissions from radio
nucleotides, capable of altering a food molecular structure for the purpose of
controlling microbial contaminants, pathogens, parasites and pests in food, preserving
food or inhibiting physiological processes such as sprouting or ripening;
"labelling" means any written, printed or graphic
representation that is present on the label of a product, accompanies the
product or is displayed near the product;
"operation" means a farm, production unit or project
involved in the production and/or processing of products;
"operator" means any person who is involved at any
stage of the chain of production, processing, storage, packaging, transporting,
retailing, displaying, importing or exporting of organic/organic in conversion
products or who markets such products;
"organic" means produced by the specific management
practices indicated in these standards, which take care of the environment and
soil and synthetic chemicals (including pesticides and fertilisers) are not
permitted other than those allowed;
"organic chemistry" means the chemistry of organic
compounds;
"organic compounds" means chemical compounds containing
carbon combined with hydrogen and often also with oxygen, nitrogen and other
elements;
"organic in conversion" means a production
system which has adhered to these standards for at least one year and has been
certified as such but which does not qualify as fully organic;
"organic product" means a product which has been produced,
processed and/or handled in compliance with these standards;
"processed/processing" means cooking, baking, heating, drying,
mixing, crushing, pressing, churning, separating, extracting juices or other
material, peeling, fermenting, eviscerating, preserving, dehydrating, freezing
or manufacturing which materially alters the flavour, keeping quality, or any
other property or the making of any substantial change of form, but does not
include refrigeration at temperatures which are above freezing point or any
other treatment which merely retards or accelerates the natural processes of
ripening or decomposition;
"processing aid" means substances that are added to food
during the processing but are removed from the food before it is finally packed:
The substance can also be converted into constituents normally present
in the food or still be present in the food in insignificant levels;
"produced"
means grown, raised, harvested, handled or stored under the control of the
operator;
"produce/d" means the operations undertaken to
supply agricultural products in the state in which they occur on the farm,
including initial packaging and labelling of the product;
"substance" means all its components including
active and inert ingredients;
"synthetic"
means a substance that is formulated or manufactured by a chemical process or by
a process that chemically changes a substance extracted from naturally
occurring plant, animal or animal sources, except that such term shall not apply
to substances created by naturally occurring biological processes; and
"the Act"
means the South African Agricultural Product Standards Act, 1990 (Act No. 119 of
1990).
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