The Bulgarian National Consumer Association (BNCA) announced on November 29 that in many cases in Bulgaria, food producers put the words "biological", "ecological" and/or "organic" on their products' packages without these products indeed having been produced using biological methods and by certified producer of bio foods.

BNCA, together with Bioselena Foundation for Organic Agriculture, works on a project called "No to the Fake Biofoods!", which is financed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Co-operation.

An expert check found that there are similar fake labels on products like kashkaval (Bulgarian yellow cheese), yoghurt, canned fruit, vinegar, cereal, beans, lentils, rice, lyutenitsa (red pepper- and tomato-based chutney), gyuvetch (stew of meat and vegetables baked in a clay pot), rye nuts, sweet corn, green peas, cultivated mushrooms, margarine, cheese and others.

To be sold with the label "biological", each and every product has to be produced biologically, but also controlled and certified by an organisation or company, which meets requirements strictly defined in regulations.

The label should contain the name and the code number of the controlling body.

BNCA sent letters to the producers misusing "bio" and "eco" labels. The first project's result is that a branch of buffalo yoghurt has removed the label "biological product" from its package.

According to the Consumer Protection Act (art.38, par.1), the fake bio labels are misleading advertising. Such descriptions are also in direct violation of Regulation 22 (from July 4 2001) for the biological production of plants, plant products and foods from plant origin, and the production's labelling on them. Violated is also the Law on Applying Common Organisations of the Agricultural Products Markets in the EU, which in Bulgaria came into effect on January 1 2007.

BNCA and Bioselena previously announced that the biological products market in Bulgaria is too narrow; its current share is less than 0.5 per cent. The land certified for biological production is less than 0.2 per cent from all agricultural land.