C10.8.5 Soil Association Organic Labels
© Soil Association
The Soil Association organic standards cover both the EC regulations and the Compendium of UK Organic Standards. In many cases their standards are more robust than those set by legislation.
The Soil Association symbol indicates that a product is high organic standards and provides an assurance of organic authenticity.
All foods sold as organic in the EU must originate from growers, processors and importers who are registered with an approved certification body and regularly inspected. If there are any non-organic ingredients in the product, they must appear on the ingredients list in the same colour, size and style of lettering as the organic ingredients. All labels must gain written approval from SA Certification Ltd before use.
The labelling rules apply to:
- Raw materials.
- Retail and bulk products.
- Processed and unprocessed products.
- Promotional material, catalogues and websites.
To label a product as organic (or organically grown or produced), it must contain:
- At least 95 per cent (by weight) of the agricultural ingredients as organic, and
- Only non-organic ingredients and processing aids listed in the rules
Products where 70-95 per cent of the agricultural ingredients are organic must be labelled with one of the following phrases:
- X per cent of the agricultural ingredients are produced in accordance with the rules of organic production,
- ‘made with x per cent organic agricultural ingredients’, or
- ‘products containing x per cent organic agricultural ingredients’.
Source: www.soilassociation.org
Further information is available from: