The Ukrainian ecolabeling program also covers various categories of food and beverages.

The list of environmental criteria for these groups can be found in the section Certification criteria.

The certification procedure complies with ISO 14024. The conformity of the product to the established environmental criteria of the life cycle assessment is assessed.

The basic requirements of the criteria include an assessment of the following indicators:

  • Management of environmental aspects of the life cycle;
  • Availability of product safety management system for all supply chains in accordance with ISO 22000;
  • Sustainability of sources of natural raw materials and ingredients;
  • Limitations in raw materials on the content of heavy metals, toxins, nitrates, pesticides and radionuclides (requirements for content indicators are significantly higher in comparison with state norms);
  • GMO free;
  • Conformity of all processes of manufacture, packaging, transportation to the requirements of the legislation;
  • Energy intensity of the technological process of production;
  • Production waste management;
  • Reduction of pollutant emissions into the air and pollution of sewage;
  • Packing material and transportation of the finished product.

Raw materials

Environmental criteria concerning the raw material used for the production of products establish the requirement for its compliance with applicable law and state standards. Also, more stringent requirements regarding government norms, which limit the content of toxic products in the finished product, mycotoxins, and radionuclides, are applied.

GMO

The environmental criteria prohibit the content of GMOs in products.

Organic products

Products certified according to ISO 14024 are not organic products. The fundamental difference is that environmental criteria do not establish requirements for the methods of growing the raw materials and ingredients from which the finished product is produced. We begin to evaluate the product from the assessment of the safety indicators of its components. The assessment is carried out on compliance with environmental criteria, based on data from laboratory research protocols.