Certifying Out Of Home Operators in Europe. European Forum for Certification.

For the 7th consecutive year a session on organic certification of out-of-home operations was held at the BioFach in Nuremberg, February 2010. The focus on organic catering in Europe is a growing movement. A number of standards and statements are presented thus adding to the sharing of information, experiences and inspiration across borders and organisations. It is hoped that this exchange will facilitate beneficial contacts between those involved in the setting up and development of national and private catering certification standards. The mass catering sector is growing and therefore attracts increasing attention at pan‐European level; The EU regulation for organic food and farming (EC No 834/2007) which came into force on January 1st, 2009, obliges the European Commission to report to the EU Council on the scope of the regulation before the end of 2011, with a clear reference to ‘organic food prepared by mass caterers’. Moreover, a Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions of 16 July 2008 on ‘Public procurement for a better environment’ opens up for promoting an increased consumption of organic food and farming products as tools to mitigate climate change. In the following pages the presentations given at the BioFach session on certification of out‐of‐home catering are to be found