The Bundesverband Naturkost Naturwaren (BNN) adopted an orientation value for pesticides on April 3, 2001. This gave BNN member companies a practicable means of dealing with possible pesticide findings in organic products.
The members of the BNN, who are active in production and wholesale and who thus represent important interfaces for checking product quality, have undertaken to trade only goods that comply with this guideline. This is guaranteed by written assurances from upstream suppliers (e.g. specifications), by laboratory analyses and other quality assurance measures.
Head of BNN-Monitoring Fruits & Vegetables and Dry Goods
scharpenbergn-bnn.de
+49 (0)30 / 847 12 24-36
Even in compliance with all legal requirements for organic farming, unacceptable substances may be detectable in organic products. These can get into the products in a variety of ways, for example, through legacy contamination or shipments from conventional farming, as well as through contamination from processing machinery, storage facilities, transport containers or packaging. Therefore, a way was sought to delineate unpredictable and unavoidable pesticide levels from those that are a consequence of improper use of inputs or technically avoidable contamination.
After extensive interviews with practitioners from the natural food industry and taking into account the empirical values of experts in residue analysis, the BNN orientation value was defined as a practical and useful decision-making aid.
By adhering to the orientation value, the justifiably high expectations of customers and consumers are to be fulfilled and the high quality awareness of the member companies of the BNN e.V. is to be communicated to the outside world.