Inspections On All Levels

Each organic organisation (farm or processing organisation) must subject itself to the statutory inspections which are carried out at least once a year by the inspection bodies approved by the state. Besides these announced inspections, unannounced inspections are conducted as well.

The inspection system includes all production and processing stages completely, up to packaging and labelling. Thus, it is impossible to mix organic with conventional goods when raw materials or partly processed products change from one stage to another. If bread is produced for example not only is the farmer that grows the corn inspected, but also the mill that grinds it and, last but not least the bakery that uses the corn for baking bread.

Every manager is obligated to keep accurate accounts of all goods received and goods issued and must disclose all documents, input and output books, recipes, stock lists, etc. for the inspections. The inspector makes sure that only approved means or ingredients were used and if the quantity of the bought produce or products respectively correspond with sales. In addition, the inspector examines the whole business and, in suspicious cases, takes samples for analysis.