Role of Agmark as a standardized mark :
Agmark was termed by “Ag” for agriculture and “mark” for certification. It gives certification to quality agriculture products through the Government of India by its agency Directorate of Marketing and Inspection (DMI).
Though it is voluntary certification, it is designed to benefit the local farmers throughout India to protect them from exploitation and raising their standards with certification.
Currently AGMARK covers guidelines for 222 different commodities spanning a variety of pulses, cereals, essential oils, vegetable oils, fruits and vegetables, as well as semi- processed foods.
It has testing laboratories across India where analysis of food samples are done for chemical and microbiological parameters, pesticide residues, adulterants.
It evaluates various food product ranges like spices, fats, oils, cereals and their products, legumes and their products, fruits, vegetables, honey, and animal source food products like meat.