Report
The Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture (ASHA-Kisan Swaraj) has urged the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) not to revoke relaxations that allow original organic producers and aggregators selling directly to consumers to use the organic logo without strict compliance.
Exemptions Under Threat
In an open letter to the FSSAI Chairperson, ASHA’s Sreedevi Lakshmikutty said discussions held on May 7 suggested removing these exemptions. The group argued that this move would hurt genuine farmers while failing to solve the issue of “fake organic” products, which they called a misbranding problem rather than a food safety concern. The representation, signed by 131 stakeholders, said: “Fake organic products are no more unsafe than those grown with agrochemicals. We fought for years to secure these exemptions so that small farmers could adopt agroecological practices without being crushed under heavy compliance norms.”
Concerns Over Regulation 4(1)(iii)
ASHA also flagged a parallel FSSAI proposal to remove Regulation 4(1)(iii) of the FSS (Organic Foods) Regulations, which would eliminate scope for additional organic standards beyond the two existing ones. The group urged FSSAI to notify other certification systems instead of limiting India’s organic ecosystem.
PGS-India Under Scrutiny
Furthermore, ASHA criticised FSSAI for questioning the Ministry of Agriculture’s PGS-India (Participatory Guarantee System) certification, calling it a legitimate, farmer-friendly regime. “FSSAI’s mandate is food safety, while organic farming also involves environmental and livelihood concerns. The problem of fake organic cannot dictate India’s entire organic farming policy,” the letter stated. ASHA warned that revoking these provisions would undermine years of efforts to promote safe, chemical-free food and organic farming in India.
Source: Deccan Herald