Certification of organic mass catering - a need for harmonization across Europe?

Summary

To evaluate the state of the art of organic certification in out-of-home catering, a survey was carried
out among relevant stakeholders in several European countries. The Council Regulation (EC) No
834/2007 about organic production specifically excludes what is called mass catering. Hence, a range
of diverging systems for certification of organic catering and restaurants have been developed. This
study presents opinions about a potential EU-wide harmonisation of an organic certification scheme
for mass catering from relevant stakeholders. Certification bodies and other public authorities as well
as stakeholders close to the catering practice were generally positive towards the idea of a
harmonisation process. Several stakeholders should be involved in such a process, and organic
associations and certification bodies were considered likely to be the strongest drivers. The study
demonstrates that even the experts are sometimes unsure about details in this part of organic
certification. This illustrates the complexity of this field.