AGMARK Seal

AGMARK

AGMARK standard provides the AGMARK seal. The Directorate of Marketing and Inspection of Government of India has set up this standard in the year 1937. It has responsibilities of ensuring purity and quality of a product.

The head office of Directorate of Marketing and Inspection is in Faridabad and one Branch Office is in Nagpur.

The five Regional Offices of the Directorate are located at Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Calcutta and Hyderabad. It has forty three Sub Offices which are spread throughout India.

Central Agmark lab of the Directorate is situated in Nagpur. It has also twenty two Regional Agmark labs.

Objectives of Agmark

The main objectives of the agmark scheme are to promote Grade and Standardization of agricultural and allied commodities under agricultural Produce (Grading & Marketing) Act of 1937.

Main features of AGMARK

Based on their inherent quality, the quality standards for agricultural commodities are framed. To compete in the World trade various Food safety factors have been incorporated in the standards. Food Standards are being hormonised with global Food standards keeping in view the WTO needs. For the betterment and benefit of the manufacturer and consumer, certification of agricultural commodities is carried out. Certification of some food articles like Honey, Butter, Ghee, Ground-Spices, wheat Atta etc is very popular as these food articles are more prone to adulteration. Some food articles like Blended Edible Vegetable Oils and Fat Spread are compulsorily required to be certified under Agmark. Six cotton classing centres have been set up in cotton growing belt in India to give Facilities that provides testing and grading of Cotton for the benefit of cotton growers.

 Eligibility

Manufacture and producer who want to grade his products and commodities under Agmark need to get a Certificate of approval or authorization. For obtaining authorization the manufacturers should have the desired infrastructure to manufacture or process the products or commodities and should have access to an approved laboratory for the determination of quality and safety factors.

AGMARK SEAL

A typical seal ofAgmark should look like this.

AGMARK..

Sl.No.......

Grade......

Place of Packaging….

Date of Packaging......

Net Weight.......

The quality of a food article is measured with reference to the moisture, variety, size, weight, fat content, colour and other factors are also taken into consideration.

The grades for this are

Grade1 for special, 2 for good, 3 for fair and Grade 4 is for ordinary