Page 28 - Business Basics for Alberta Food Processors

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Organic Processing
A processor is defined as a person or company who
performs any type of value-adding operation to raw
products that have been organically produced. These
operations include cooking, baking, heating, drying,
mixing, grinding, churning, separating, extracting,
cutting, fermenting, slaughtering, eviscerating,
preserving, dehydrating, or other manufacturing
which includes packaging, canning, jarring or
otherwise enclosing in a container.
To maintain the organic integrity of a processed
product, processors must adhere to national standard
and be certified by a certifying body. These
standards cover the requirements from the
transportation and storage stages through to
processing, packaging and labeling for processor
certification. Some of these regulations include:
Organic products cannot be mixed with non-
organic products during storage and
transportation.
Only the permitted food additives and
processing aids can be used during processing.
Only the permitted pest control agents can be
used on the product.
A processed product can be labeled as organic if
at least 95% of the ingredients, excluding added
water or salt, are obtained from certified sources
of production.
A complete listing of the national organic regulations
and standards can be obtained from the Canadian
Food Inspection Agency website:
www.inspection.gc.ca