On the occasion of the first European Organic Day on 23 September, the organic vademecum arrives. The initiative is aimed at helping, accompanying and advising consumers to make an informed choice and to extricate themselves “in the jungle of labels in order to recognize the true organic”. The vademecum is produced by Aiab – the Italian Association of Organic Agriculture.
To recognize a Bio product, Aiab indicates that the labeling must show the organic logo (Eurofoglia) and the origin of the raw material (agriculture in Italy or agriculture in the EU region-agriculture, non-EU agriculture, EU / non-EU agriculture). In addition, the label must have the code of the control body (example: It-Bio-123), contain It – international ISO code that identifies the country of the control body, the wording Bio in force in Italy (Eko, Eco , Org for other countries) and 123-numeric identification code of the control body that certifies the operator.
“Italy – says Giuseppe Romano, national president of Aiab – today boasts the highest percentage of organic surfaces on the total agricultural area, 17%, compared to the average EU share still standing at 9%. Despite this, however, in Italy spends just over 3 million euros every year for the purchase of organic products, while in Germany, for example, almost 15 million. This is for several reasons, but mainly because there is also a great deal of confusion about what it means to choose. an organic product and how to recognize it. It is necessary to get used to reading the labels and recognizing what we buy for our daily diet. This is why we have thought of this simple handbook to help clarify and help consumers recognize organic products “.