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Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries   
Public Notice No. 2008 -116 
 
 
 
 
    Pursuant to Article 31  Paragraph  3 of ‘ Enforcement Decree of the Food Industry 
Promotion Act’, herein notice following  partial revisions to the ‘Guidelines for 
designation and operation of Excellent  Food Certification Authorities’ (Ministry for Food, 
Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Public Notice No.2008 -48, dated August 01, 2008) . 
 
 
December 19, 2008  
  
                                                            
Minister,                                                                                                                                
Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries  
 
 
 
 
 
Partial revisions to ‘Guidelines  for designation and  
operation of Excellent  Food Certification Authorities’  
 
 
The following provisory clause shall be added into  Article 6 Paragraph  1. 
 
    However, the facilities and equipments are not required if the certification authority of 
processed organic foods entrusts the measuring and analysis of the product to  a testing or 
research institution.  
 
 
ADDENDUM  
 
(Date of entry into force) This Guideline  shall be enforced from the day of this notice.   
 
 2  
 
 
Comparison Table of New -Old Provisions  
 
Current  Revised  
Article 6 (Added)     The c ertification 
authorit y  must have  the facilit ies needed to 
measure and ana lyze the product , 
inspection staff, equipment for analysis , 
and ability to analyze.  
 
 
 
 
 
  (Omitted)  
  
 
 
 
 
However, the facilities and equipments are 
not required if the certi fication authority of 
processed organic foods entrusts the 
measuring and analysis of the product to a 
testing or research institution.  
 
 
  
 
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Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries  
Public Notice No. 2008 -120 
 
 
    Pursuant to Article 23 of the ‘Food Industry Promotion Act’, herein  notice  following  
enactment of  the ‘Enforcement Guideline s on Processed Organic F oods Certification 
System ’.  
 
December 19, 2008  
  
                                                                                    
Minister,                                                                                                                                               
Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries  
  
 
 
 
 
Enacting Operating Guideline on  
Processed Organic Foods Certification System (Proposal)  
 
 
Chapter 1. General Provisions  
 
 
Article 1  (Purpose ) The purpose of this guideline  is to designate the details need ed to 
efficiently carry out the processed organic foods certification system in compliance with 
the ‘Food Industry Promotion Act’  (referred as “Act” hereinafter) . 
 
Article 2  (Definitions of terms) The definitions of terms that are used in this guideline 
are as follows.  
 
1. “Business operator” indicates an individual or a corporation who is in  the 
produc ing, process ing and distribut ing organic foods business.  
2. “Processed organic foods ” are  foods that were produced, processed and distributed 
with products of orga nic farming in  compliance with Article 16 of the 
‘Environment -Friendly Agriculture Fosterage Act’  as raw materials or as 
ingredients.  
3. “Aids for processing” are materials or ingredients that are used deliberately to 
process raw materials, foods or to proces s food components. They are not 
consumed as foods but likely to be added to the end products.   
 
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Chapter 2.  The Scope of Certification System  
 
Article 3 ( Scope of Application )   If a business operator who is under one  of the 
following subparagraph s intends to mark or sell processed food s as “organic ”, the 
operator should get certificated by due process of law.  
 
1. Persons  who plan to manufacture or pro duce  processed organic foods w ithin th is 
country using domestic or imported organic materials ( Including b utchery and fresh 
side food processing, meat processing, milk processing, milling and flour milling).  
2. Persons who plan to manufacture or produce  processed organic foods using 
domes tic or imported organic materials in the fo reign country for the purpose of  
selling within this country.  
3. Persons who  divid e domestic or foreign -made processed organic foods into smaller 
units  or re-pack them within this country.  
 
  Raw materials for certified products should meet  the certification standards which 
specified in ‘Attached Table 3’ of Article 9 of the ‘Enforcement Rule of Environment -
Friendly Agriculture Fosterage Act’. Whether the organic material fits those standards  or 
not shall be confirmed by the certificate issued b y certification authority that ha s 
designated pursuant to the ‘Environment -Friendly Agriculture Fosterage Act’.  
 
 
Chapter 3.  Standards of Certification and Handling  
 
Article 4 (Certification Standards)   The ‘ Certification Standards of Processed Organic 
Foods ’ specified in ‘Attached Table  4’ in accordance with  Article 22 Paragraph 1 of the 
Enforcement Rule shall be applied as follows.  
 
1. ‘Product which is o rganically produced or handled’ indicates certifi ed products of 
organic farming in accordance with the ‘Environment -Friendly Agriculture 
Fosterage Act’ or certified processed organic foods in accordance with  the ‘Food 
Industry Promotion Act’.  
2. ‘Non-organic  raw material of the same kind’ shall be distingui shed as following 
subparagraphs.  
 
a. Non-processed raw materials with same name are considered  as same kind 
materials.  
b. For simple processed foodstuffs, if they used the same raw materials with 
different names, they are consider ed as the same materials. For ex ample, corn 
flour and corn starch, tomato puree and tomato paste are regarded as the same 
materials.  
c. The c ertification authority shall decide the sameness of materials for specific 
cases.  
  
 
 5 3. If any GMO is detected in the sample for certification screening, t he product shall 
not be certificated.  
4. Water used to processed organic foods shall meet the drinking water quality 
standards in Article 2 of ‘ Regulation o n quality standards and examination  of 
drinking water’.  
5. Business operators shall prove that the micro -organic formulations they used are 
not one of those ‘originated from genetically modified microorganism’ defined in 
‘Attached Table 4’ B. 5) of the Regulation. Business operators shall do so by 
prov iding documentary evidence  from the supplier of the micro -organic 
formulations .  
6. ‘Mechanical , physical method s’ include  cutting, grinding, mixing, moulding, 
heating, cooling, pressurization, decompression, drying, separation (filtration, 
centrifugation, compression, distillation), preservation, and smoking. ‘Biolo gical 
method s’ include fermentation and ripening.  
7. ‘Ionizing  radiation’ means radiation that is used for the purposes of sterilization, 
killing insects, inhibition of sprouting, retardation of ripening, maintain ing 
freshness, improving food features.  
8. The ratio of organic material s shall be calculated as follows.  
 
a. When there are conflicts with weight and volume due to the different unit per 
materials, the ration shall be calculated based on the unit of the end product.  
b. Certified organic additives are consider ed as organic materials and calculated as 
such.  
c. For water and salt , only those  that were added for processing are excluded from 
the calculation.  Water and salt that were originally contained within the r aw 
material shall be included for  the calculation.  
d. For processed materials and additives that were concentrated or diluted , the 
weight and volume that were  restored to their original condition shall be used.  
e. When processed organic materials with non -organic additives were used, only 
the organic material port ion shall be included for calculation.  
  
 
 6 Article 5  (Handling Standards)  ‘Handling standards for Processed organic foods’ which 
is specified in ‘Attached Table 6’ in accordance with Article 22 Paragraph 2 of the 
Regulation shall be applied as follows.  
 
1. ‘Preventive measures’ to exterminate vermin include  habitat removal, cut-offs of 
access  route s, using natural enemies. ‘Physical, mechanical, biological measures’ 
include  physical barriers, sound waves, ultrasonic waves, sunlight, ultraviolet rays, 
trap, and t emperature control.  
2. ‘Allowed insecticides’ are ‘Materials that are allowed to be treated as organic ’  
which are in the related ‘Attached Table 5 ’ of Article 22 Paragraph 2 of the 
Regulation, and  ‘Resources available for pest management’ in the related ‘Attached 
Table 1 ’ 1. A. (2) of Article 7 of the Enforcement Rule.  
 
 
Chapter 4.  Labelling Certification  
 
 
Article 6 (Labelling)    Certified business operators must display “Organic  (Product 
Name)”, “Name of the certification authority” and “Certification Number” on the 
certified products.  
  ‘Foreign language notation that would be mistaken as processed organic foods’ are 
‘Organi c’, ‘Bio’ and ‘Eco’ of English, and the third country language with the same 
meanings.  
 
 
Chapter 5.  ADDENDUM  
 
This Guideline shall be enforced from the day of this notice. However,  the provision 
related to labelling processed organic foods in the Article 3 of  
 ‘Labelling Standards for Foods’ (Korea Food and Drug Administration Public Notice No. 
2007 -69) shall be effective until  December 31, 2009.