Steps to Organic Program for Professional Kitchens

Eko­Cen­tria is­sued Steps to Or­ganic diploma to Restau­rant Perho and Cafe­te­ria Herkku on 5.11.2014. Steps to Or­ganic -pro­gram is a vol­un­tary for all pro­fes­sional kitchens in Fin­land. The goal of the pro­gram is to coach es­pe­cially the pub­lic sec­tor in­dus­trial kitchens into a more sus­tain­able de­vel­op­ment by in­creas­ing the use of or­ganic in­gre­di­ents in their daily ac­tiv­i­ties. The ba­sic premise of the pro­gram is to act in a de­pend­able fash­ion in ac­cor­dance with the prin­ci­ples of sus­tain­able de­vel­op­ment. In or­der to ful­fill this prom­ise, the pro­gram im­poses cer­tain re­quire­ments and rec­om­men­da­tions on the in­dus­trial kitchens join­ing.

Or­ganic is the way to pro­duce food in har­mony with na­ture. It com­bines best en­vi­ron­men­tal prac­tices, high stan­dards of an­i­mal wel­fare and nat­u­ral in­gre­di­ents and man­u­fac­tur­ing meth­ods are en­cour­aged.

The term ’or­ganic’ is de­fined and known in­ter­na­tion­ally. The or­ganic mar­ket and con­sumer in­ter­est in or­ganic prod­ucts is on the rise all over the world, with a well-es­tab­lished stand­ing in Eu­rope. The in­ter­na­tional trends can also be seen in Fin­land, re­in­forc­ing the de­mand for or­ganic prod­ucts. This growth is fur­ther al­le­vi­ated by the in­creas­ing con­sumer in­ter­est in health, en­vi­ron­ment, an­i­mal wel­fare as well as nat­u­ral tastes.

Or­ganic is closely re­lated to sus­tain­able de­vel­op­ment. Pub­lic food ser­vices are en­cour­aged to of­fer or­ganic food – as a means to pro­vide sus­tain­able food ser­vices. Ac­cord­ing to the EU for­eign ma­te­rial con­trol ser­vice, the Finnish or­ganic prod­ucts have no pes­ti­cide residues. Or­ganic veg­etable prod­ucts have lower ni­trate lev­els than those grown with the use of ar­ti­fi­cial fer­til­iz­ers. Ni­trate in large quan­ti­ties is in­ju­ri­ous to your health. (http://www.por­taatlu­o­muun.fi/ )

How to join the pro­gram?  Steps to Or­ganic –pro­gram is ac­ces­si­ble over the In­ter­net. See the at­tached brochure for more in­for­ma­tion:

Lataa tiedosto (PDF, 2MB)

You can eat an or­ganic ap­ple with skin in­tact! Eat­ing or­ganic veg­eta­bles helps you to keep  ni­trate lev­els low!

NEWS

The first Fin­land’s Or­ganic Chef com­pe­ti­tion will be ar­ranged in ELMA coun­try­side fair, Hel­sinki, 11^th-13rd of No­vem­ber, 2016. Pro­fes­sional chefs, as well as stu­dents of the field, will be pur­su­ing the ti­tle of the Or­ganic Chef of the Year in their own cat­e­gories.

More in­for­ma­tion about Or­ganic food in Fin­land at: http://pro­lu­omu.fi/eng­lish/