{"id":1264,"date":"2022-06-28T22:29:56","date_gmt":"2022-06-28T22:29:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/CDFAInspectionServicesBlog\/?p=1264"},"modified":"2022-06-28T22:29:56","modified_gmt":"2022-06-28T22:29:56","slug":"cdfa-issues-1-89-million-penalty-to-agro-research-international-llc-for-adulteration-and-mislabeling-of-organic-fertilizer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/CDFAInspectionServicesBlog\/index.php\/2022\/06\/28\/cdfa-issues-1-89-million-penalty-to-agro-research-international-llc-for-adulteration-and-mislabeling-of-organic-fertilizer\/","title":{"rendered":"CDFA issues $1.89 million penalty to Agro Research International LLC for adulteration and  mislabeling of organic fertilizer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The California Department of Food and Agriculture\u2019s (CDFA) Fertilizing Materials Inspection Program and California State Organic Program today announced that a penalty of $1.89 million has been issued to Agro Research International LLC of Sorrento, FL, for adulteration and mislabeling of the registered organic input material AGRO GOLD WS. The product was found to contain the synthetic herbicides diquat and glyphosate.<br>\u00a0<br>CDFA served a \u201cNotice of Penalty and Adverse Determination\u201d to Agro Research International LLC President and CEO Marc Lajeunesse. The notice identified 378 counts of adulteration and mislabeling violations of AGRO GOLD WS. The notice requires an additional payment of $92,312.13 in reimbursement for investigative costs.<br>\u00a0<br>CDFA initiated an investigation into AGRO GOLD WS \u2013 distributed within a box co-packaged with organic herbicide WEED SLAYER \u2013 in August 2020. AGRO GOLD WS was registered with CDFA as a \u201cbiological amendment\u201d organic input material and was required to adhere to the U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s National Organic Program standards for organic food and crop production. CDFA\u2019s investigation analyzed 16 unique lots of AGRO GOLD WS. All laboratory analyses indicated unequivocal confirmation of adulteration with diquat and glyphosate at significant levels. Unique samples later analyzed by four other states\u2019 departments of agriculture concurred with CDFA\u2019s results.<br>\u00a0<br>On December 4, 2020, CDFA\u2019s Fertilizing Materials Inspection Program, pursuant to its authority under the Food and Agricultural Code, issued an order of statewide quarantine and removal from sale.\u00a0 On the same date, CDFA\u2019s State Organic Program executed a statewide stop use order for AGRO GOLD WS. Sale and use of this product posed a public health risk because the synthetic herbicides were not disclosed on its label.\u00a0<br>\u00a0<br>Parties in possession of AGRO GOLD WS who wish to dispose of quarantined inventory are instructed to submit a disposal plan to CDFA via\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdfa.ca.gov\/forms\/docs\/513-121b_request_to_authorize_disposal_of_quarantined_material.pdf\">this form<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdfa.ca.gov\/egov\/Press_Releases\/Press_Release.asp?PRnum=22-071\">View this original CDFA news release here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The California Department of Food and Agriculture\u2019s (CDFA) Fertilizing Materials Inspection Program and California State Organic Program today announced that a penalty of $1.89 million has been issued to Agro Research International LLC of Sorrento, FL, for adulteration and mislabeling &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/CDFAInspectionServicesBlog\/index.php\/2022\/06\/28\/cdfa-issues-1-89-million-penalty-to-agro-research-international-llc-for-adulteration-and-mislabeling-of-organic-fertilizer\/\"><span class=\"text-nowrap\">Continue reading <i class=\"fa fa-fw fa-caret-right\"><\/i><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,29,12,104],"tags":[298,297,34],"class_list":["post-1264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ffldrs","category-cdfa-fertilizing-materials-inspection-program","category-cdfa-inspection-services-division","category-cdfa-organic-input-material-program-cdfa-fertilizing-materials-inspection-program","tag-agro-gold-ws","tag-agro-research-international","tag-organic-input-material-program"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/CDFAInspectionServicesBlog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/CDFAInspectionServicesBlog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/CDFAInspectionServicesBlog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/CDFAInspectionServicesBlog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/CDFAInspectionServicesBlog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1264"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/CDFAInspectionServicesBlog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1265,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/CDFAInspectionServicesBlog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1264\/revisions\/1265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/CDFAInspectionServicesBlog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/CDFAInspectionServicesBlog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/CDFAInspectionServicesBlog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}