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Eco Food® Ecological Food Certification

The first legal regulation on ecological agriculture practices and ecological food production in our country is the Regulation on the Production of Plant and Animal Products by Ecological Methods issued by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs in 1994. However, within the scope of European Union harmonization studies, this regulation was repealed and the Regulation on the Principles and Application of Organic Agriculture, which came into force in 2002, was published instead.

In order to solve the problems and to overcome the deficiencies in ecological agricultural activities in 2004, the Law on Organic Agriculture was also published in order to provide a legal basis for such activities. A year later, in 2005, the Regulation on the Principles and Application of Organic Agriculture was revised.

The Law on Organic Agriculture aims to determine the principles and procedures for the development of ecological products and input materials in order to provide consumers with quality and reliable food products. According to the said law, the scope of ecological food production is determined as follows:

  • Production of ecological products or inputs using soil, water, air, plants, animals and natural resources
  • Collection of products from natural areas and resources
  • Control of all stages of the production of ecological foodstuffs until they reach to consumers such as harvesting, cutting, processing, packaging, labeling, storage, storage, transportation, marketing, import and export

With these legal regulations, ecological agriculture practices started to develop in our country. However, a significant part of the production is carried out in the form of contracted agricultural production, especially on the basis of demands from European Union countries.

According to official figures, the number of farms or businesses engaged in ecological agriculture in 2004 is around 12 thousand. In 2016, this figure increased to 68 thousand. In 2004, 162 was one thousand hectares, while 2016 was one thousand hectares. In 490, the number of ecologically produced products was 2004, while in 174 the number of ecological products was 2016. Again in 225, the amount of ecological products produced in 2004 is around one thousand tons, while in 378, 2016 has reached to one and a half million tons. These figures are indicative of a great improvement. Ecological agriculture practices are more in crop production in our country. The most commonly produced plants are cotton, apple, tomato, wheat, apricot, lentil, grape and fig.

The production of ecological foodstuffs is a certified agricultural practice with strict rules and controlled. In this respect, legal regulations are constantly being made and new standards are being prepared and these need to be closely monitored. In addition, EU agricultural policies and legal regulations for ecological agriculture need to be closely monitored for ecological food products to be sent to the EU countries which are the biggest buyers.

Why is ECO Food Standard Important?

The ecological balance of the world has been turned upside down as a result of conscious or unconscious practices. If so, this balance will disappear completely in the near future. Studies in the field of ecological agriculture are aimed at restoring the lost natural balance and creating friendly production systems for the protection of human health and the environment.

In this context, the use of synthetic chemical pesticides, hormones and mineral fertilizers should be strictly prohibited. Instead, organic and green fertilization, soil protection, alternating planting, increasing plant resistance, and making more use of natural enemies for soil and plants are required. Ecological production methods are the systems that bring all these together. What is essential in ecological production is not only to increase production on the basis of quantity, but also to improve the quality of the products. In this respect, ecological production methods are considered as an alternative to traditional production methods.

Therefore, our organization has developed the ECO Food standard by acting with a sense of responsibility and allows the companies applying this standard to use ECO Food certificate and ECO Food label.

ECO Food Procedures

Our company is based on FSSC 22000 Food Safety System standard which is accepted all over the world in terms of food safety in ecological food production. This standard has been published in our country as TS EN ISO 22000 Food safety management systems - conditions standard for food chain organizations.

However, the ECO Food standard is a food-based standard and the ECOMark® Ecological Product Certification Program criteria developed by our organization are taken into consideration in the evaluation and certification studies.

The ECO Food label on the products proves that these nutrients are sensitive to human health and the protection of nature.

Our organization has established a number of procedures in order to ensure that these processes are carried out systematically in order to implement ECO Food standard and to use ECO Food label during the promotion and marketing of its products. These procedures have been prepared with the aim of providing quality and perfect service to the enterprises.

Here are a few ECO Food procedures:

  • ECO Food certification application procedure: This procedure includes the process of receiving and evaluating the certificate requests of the companies establishing and applying the ECO Food standard in their enterprises.
  • ECO Food certification contract procedure: This procedure covers the preliminary evaluation studies to be made by our company after the application of the companies, the contract conditions to be made with the company and the responsibilities and obligations of the parties.
  • ECO Food Certification Sample Acceptance Procedure: This procedure covers the specifications and how to obtain the product samples to be taken from the company in order to carry out the test and analysis studies when necessary.
  • ECO Food certification testing procedure: This procedure covers the principles for product testing in accredited laboratories.
  • ECO Food certification approval procedure: This procedure covers the principles for the approval process if the test and analysis results are found to comply with the relevant standards.
  • Procedure for granting permission to use the ECO Food label: This procedure covers the methods of using the ECO Food label on the products and the resulting responsibilities of the companies.