Vegetarian Products
The Vegetarian Products certification attests that an Agrifood product has been obtained excluding the presence of meat obtained by any animal or excluding products of animal origin.
What are vegetarian products
The vegetarian products need to be obtained without the use in the entire production process of food/ingredients/ adjuvants/ processing aids of animal origin, obtained with the sacrifice and/or the mistratment of animals.
Which products can be certified as vegetarian
Certification is applicable for any kind of agrifood product. Vegetarian diet is adopted not only as a lifestyle, therefore also for ethical or environmental reasons, but also by those that need to adopt it for health reasons.
Requirements of vegetarian products
It is not possible to admit as vegetarian products:
- products made of animal tissue and organs.
- products containing ingredients derived from animal meat, bones or fat
- Jellies, gums and other gelling agents
- fats containing fish oil or similar products
- all cheeses producted with animal rennet (es. rennet made from calves' fourth stomachs)
- filtration aids with jelly, albumin (from battery-farms), isinglass, exc.
- colouring agents from cochineal or other substances of animal origin
- it is not admitted to use food, ingredients, adjuvants and/or processing aids obtained from GMO's placed in the environment.
For some products there are some special requirements:
- Milk has to come from livestocks where milk-producing animals are kept untethered in the open, or following the Organic Regulation
- Eggs need to come from free range or open air livestock, or following the Organic regulation.
- The animal breeding has to exclude feed or raw materials for feed or other substances of gmo origin.
- Beekeeping products need to come from apiaries that include a limitation of the conditions of forcing of the hive, conducted following the organic method or certified in compliance with the Production Standards (ex. PDO and PGI).
Certification value
Certification of vegetarian productions enriches the product of an added value, given by the safety of the compliance to the expentancies of the consumer. Very often indeed a careful reading of the labels is not sufficient to reassure the consumer because some ingredients can have a not clear origin. The Vegetarian Products Certification clarifies those uncertainities setting itself on a higher level from the common self declarations produced by most companies.
How to get the certification
The first step to get the certification is to send to CCPB the certification application (and eventual attachment to the same) and prepare a Company Technical Guideline in which define which products and components are object of the certification. The company therefore has to inform CCPB, about:
- Products
- Recipe
- Features of the finished product
- Destination of use of the product
- Raw materials and semi-finished products
- Suppliers
- Production process
- Identification and traceability
- Control plan
- Non compliances and claims
It is foreseen the execution of audits at each production site, and eventually at each semi-finished and or finished products supplier site. For more information see ccpb@ccpb.it
