NOP Drafts Guidance for Calculating Percentage of Organic Ingredients

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Organic Program (NOP) has proposed guidance “for calculating the percentage of organic ingredients in multi-ingredient products.” Intended for accredited certifying agents and handling operations, the draft guidance responds to a National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) request for correction and clarification of the requirements codified at 7 CFR 205.302(a), which defines the method of calculating the percentage of organically produced ingredients as ‘‘[d]ividing the total net weight (excluding water and salt) of combined organic ingredients at formulation by the total weight (excluding water and salt) of the finished product.’’

Per NOSB’s recommendations, the draft guidance corrects this language “to clarify that organic percentages should be calculated by dividing the total net weight (excluding water and salt) of combined organic ingredients at formulation by the total net weight (excluding water and salt) of all ingredients,” as opposed to “the weight of the ‘finished product’ because most products lose weight during processing.” In addition, NOP (i) describes “how to calculate the organic percentages of a multi-ingredient product that contains ingredients that are themselves composed of more than one ingredient”; (ii) clarifies “when to exclude salt and water from ingredients”; (iii) offers guidance on “how to calculate raw agricultural product and processed single ingredient ingredients”; and (v) develops “self-calculating forms on items related to the organic percentage of each ingredient and the exclusion of salt and water.”

The agency will accept comments on the draft guidance on or before February 6, 2017. See Federal Register, December 6, 2016.

Issue 625