OHIO — The U.S. Department of Agricultural announced it will implement new guidelines for organic foods. Largely, in part, to keep from misleading consumers who think they're buying organic when they're not. 

What You Need To Know

  • USDA changing guidelines for organic foods
  • This will help stop producers from not following regulations trying to pass their food off as organic even if it's not

  • Imported produce is primary concern 

The USDA has stringent rules for what is considered organic. For instance, every part of the operation is inspected, from seed sources and crop conditions, to pest and weed management and post-production handing. Farmers and handlers must document their processes and get inspected each year to earn an organic certification, and be allowed to call their products organic. 

“If you’re forking over the extra money for an organic product, you want to be assured that you’re getting what you’re paying for,” said Cassy Brown, a program manager for the College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at The Ohio State University. She said some producers may glaze over some of those requirements.

“Maybe somebody has a weed outbreak and they sneak a little pesticide in there to clean it up,” she said.

The new rules take effect in March, and require more certifications, trainings and inspections, as well as requiring certificates for all organic imports.

Brown explained imports are a primary target of the changes.

“Domestically, there are some safeguards that we have in place, but when you start dealing with export and import, there are different rules in different countries and all these bills of sales that get passed along and documents that can be forged somewhere along the way,” she said.

The USDA says this is the biggest change to its organic regulations since they were first adopted in 1990. Stakeholders, like farmers and producers, will have one year to be in compliance.