Using Colorants in U.S. Organic Foods
October 23, 2007
The Organic Foods Production Act (OFPA) of 1990 dictates the establishment of a National List of substances that are allowed or prohibited for use in organic foods. Every 5 years the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) is required to review the exemptions and prohibitions identified on the National List. The process of reviewing the National List by the NOSB is called the “Sunset Review” process. ColorMaker and D.D. Williamson proactively petitioned the NOSB to add fifteen (15) natural colorants to section 205.606 of the National List in response to (1) anticipation of the sunsetting of colors from section 205.605, (2) the ambiguity of the category “colors-nonsynthetic sources only” when listed in 205.605, and (3) the OFPA revision affecting section 205.606 in response to the “Harvey” judgement,.
Among the sections of the National List are (1) section 205.605 “nonagricultural (nonorganic) substances allowed as ingredients in or on processed products labeled as ‘organic’ or ‘made with organic (specified ingredients or food group(s))’” and (2) section 205.606 “nonorganically produced agricultural products allowed as ingredients in or on products labeled as ‘organic’ or ‘made with organic (specified ingredients or food group(s))’”. During a recent Sunset Review process, it came to the attention of the NOSB that the original placement of colorants to the National List was done without formal recommendation by the NOSB. This placement of colorants to section 205.605 was inappropriate as this section of the National List is reserved for “nonagricultural” substances and nonsynthetic colorants are agricultural derivatives. In addition, the category of “colors-nonsynthetic sources only” was found to be too vague and left potential for confusion in determining and verifying what colorants are truly nonsynthetic. Therefore, the NOSB proposed for the category “colors-nonsynthetic sources only” to be removed from section 205.605 of the National List with the expectation that natural colorants would instead be individually listed in 205.606. The USDA officially sunsetted the listing of nonsynthetic colorants from 205.605 on October 17, 20071.
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