EGTOP reports on cleaning & disinfection and potassium available on Commission website

The Expert Group for Technical Advice on Organic Production (EGTOP) published two new reports.

The first one is a draft technical report on Criteria for evaluation of products for cleaning and disinfection to be applied in all organic production fields including the post-harvest application. It aims to:

• Provide appropriate criteria for the evaluation of products for cleaning and disinfection with a responsible and ecological approach;
• Conceive the criteria for evaluation of products for cleaning and disinfection;
• Endorse a priority list of substances to be fully evaluated and schedule the needed work;
• Carry on some worked examples for the evaluation of products for cleaning and disinfection.

To reach the draft conclusions, the group took into consideration previous EGTOP Reports namely “Aquaculture – Part B adopted in 2014” and “Cleaning and disinfection 2016”. 

The second EGTOP report is a technical report on the Reassessment of the use of Potassium Phosphonate as a plant protection mean to control downy mildew on grapevine, discussed at the plenary meeting of December 2019. The EGTOP evaluated the request and concluded that there are no major changes concerning the reasons for rejection of potassium phosphonate since its previous evaluation in 2014 which leads to a need for a new evaluation.

Several facts were taken into consideration to conclude mainly, the new limitation on copper use and its real needed amount and the alternative products for copper replacement. Moreover, agronomic preventive measures, the problem of residues as well as the extreme weather conditions were also examined.