Organic products, PDOs, PGIs, labels do not change. Not right away at least, if anything, when opportunity comes. Minister Gian Marco Centinaio brings order back to the Rome administration’s sudden summer decisions.
From MiPAAF to MiPAAFT, what changes?
The current Italian government has expanded the responsibilities of the former Ministry of Agriculture. Department that has already extended its mandate to food and forestry policies over the years. What changes, with the further assignment of tasks related to tourism in Italy, will be seen. It is early to make judgments, and hope remains high.
Italy, after all, garners increasing interest from global tourists as a destination of historical and archaeological, scenic and cultural interest in the broadest sense. With also increasing attention to the age-old culture of food, which distinguishes our population like very few others on the planet.
MiPAAF or MiPAAFT, what changes on the labels of organic, PDO and PGI products?
The Palace of Bureaucracy – in Rome, Via XX Settembre-had caused concern to hundreds of thousands of Italian food businesses last August. By means of a couple of circular who feared that the labels of at least a couple of billion references would have to be changed soon. Which should have updated the references of their respective certifications, by bodies authorized by MiPAAFT instead of MiPAAF.
The dreaded change, as is evident, would not have added any useful information to consumers. Those who already could rely on the authority of organic, PDO and PGI certificates from the bodies and consortia accredited for this purpose with the ministry. Conversely-as trivial as it may seem to the uninitiated and bureaucrats-simply adding a ‘T’ would have placed unbearable burdens on companies.
Minister Gian Maria Centinaio, however, corrected the Palace of Bureaucracy’s tirade. After timely consultation with the relevant supply chain representations, the dicastery holder has ordered the publication of new circulars where it is stipulated that the fateful ‘T’ in the margin of ‘MiPAAFT’ may be added, without haste, ‘at the earliest opportunity’ (see Appendices).
In practical terms, when companies that make certified organic, PDO and PGI food products find themselves revising or reprinting their labels, without the need to consign any of those already in stock to waste, they will be able to provide the required update.
It is now expected that the minister will put an end to the byzantine labels ‘Certified by Control Body Authorized by Mipaaft‘ or ‘Certified by Public Authority Designated by Mipaaft‘. Endorsements that are not provided for by European regulations-which comprehensively regulate the productions under consideration-and do not add any value to labels already marked with distinctive EU logos .
Dario Dongo
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Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
