29. 4. 78 Official Journal of the European Communities. - No'L.117/43 ' COMMISSION REGULATION (EEC) No 890/78 of 28 April 1978 laying down detailed rules for the certification of hops THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, N Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, Having regard to Councrl Regulatron (EEC) No 1696/71 of 26 july 1971 on the common organization of the rarket in hops (1), as last amended by Regula- tion (EEC) No 1170/77 (3), and in’ particular Article 2 (5) thereof, Whereas Council Regulation'(EEC) No 1784/77 of 19 July 1977 (3) laid down general rules for the certifica- tion of hops; ' Whereas, in order to ensure substantially uniform application of the certification procedure in the Member States, it is necessary to-specify the products subject to certification, the operations involved and the information to be given on theé various documents which accompany the said products ; Whereas, to enable control to be exercised in respect of hop cones, a declaration signed by the individual or associated producer should accompany certification ; whereas this document should contain information which makes it possible to identify the hops from the moment when they are presented for certification until the certificate is issued ; Whereas, for the purposes of determining the quality characteristics which hops approved for marketing must possess, the moisture content and extraneous matter content must be taken into consideration ; whereas, in view of the reputation for quality that Community hops have acquired, the existing proce- dures customary in commercial transactions should be taken as a basis; Whereas the choice of method for checking the mois- ture content of hops should be left to the Member States ; whereas the methods adopted must, however, give comparable results ;; whereas, in case of dispute, it is necessary to use a Community method ; Whereas, in order to take account of current commer- cial practice in certain Community regions, hops marketed seeded and seedless should be defined and (') OJ No L 175, 4. 8. 1971, p. 1. (?) OJ No L 137, 3. 6. 1977, p. 7. (3) OJ No L 200, 8. 8. 1977, p. 1. provision made for the appropriate entry on the certifi- cate ; ’ ‘ Whereas, in order to ensure that users have exact infor- mation on the origin and characteristics of products put on the market, common rules should be laid down for the markmg of packages and the numbering of certrflcates ; Whereas it "should be laid down .that hops prepared from hops certified unprepared may themselves be certified only if preparation is carried out within a closed operating- circuit ; ‘whereas, however, if these operations take place in certlflcatlon centres or ware- houses the procedure for subsequent certification should be simplified ; J Whereas the subsequent certification procedure should also be simplified where the packaging of a product is changed under official supervision and without processing ;' Whereas the second subparagraph of Article 1 (1) of Regulation (EEC) No 1784/77 provides that products which are exempt from certification should be subject to a control procedure ; whereas this control proce- dure must ensure both that these products cannot upset the normal marketing pattern for certified products and that they are suitable for their declared use and are used only by those to whom they are consigned ; Whereas the operation of this control procedure should be entrusted to the bodies responsible for certi- fication ; Whereas the measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Manage- ment Committee for Hops, HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION : Article 1 For the purposes of this Regulation : (a) ‘unprepared hops’ means hops which have under- gone only preliminary drying and packaging ;