Organic certification and labelling in the UK and Ireland

All organic products sold in the UK and Ireland must comply with the European Community regulations governing organic production. These are extremely strict, legally enforceable standards that describe the inputs and practices to be used in organic farming, growing and processing. In the UK, the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is the competent authority responsible for regulating the organic sector and ensuring the obligations and requirements of the regulations are adhered to. In Ireland, this role is performed by the Department of Agriculture and Food. Contact details for each of these departments appear below.

The regulation

Regulation EC 2092/91, which governs organic farming, growing and processing throughout Europe, contains a number of overarching principles. These include:

Certification

It is illegal to offer for sale in the EU any product as organic that does not comply with the EC regulations governing organic production. This means that all products labelled as ‘organic’ are legally required to have been organically produced and certified as such.

There are currently nine certification bodies in the UK and three certification bodies in Ireland approved to administer the organic standards. They play a very important role in ensuring the integrity of the standards. By conducting both routine and unannounced audits they provide assurance that the farmers, growers and processors involved in organic production have met, and continue to comply with, the organic standards. Each of the certification bodies has a unique reference number associated with it. The reference number and details for each of the organic certification bodies appears below:

Labelling

European Community Regulations govern the labelling of organic food. All organic products originating in the EU must identify the certification body with which registration was attained. This is done using a code number. In the UK, the code consists of the prefix “UK” followed by the number of the approved body. For example, a product labelled as “Organic Certification UK9″ would indicate that the Organic Trust Limited had certified the particular product. While not required, many products also include the name and/or logo of the certification body. Each of the EU member states has their own particular code formats.

All crop products labelled as organic must be 100% organic and grown by certified producers of organic foods.

Any product that contains more than one ingredient, for example - processed food, and refers to the term “organic” or similar on its principal display (front or main) panel must have 95% or more of its ingredients, excluding water and salt, derived from certified sources of organic production that are in accordance with the EC Regulations.

Imported Organic Products

Organic products imported from within the EU are required to comply with the EC Organic Regulations and therefore must meet the same high standards as those produced in either Ireland or the UK. Organic products from countries outside the EU are not allowed to be imported into either Ireland or the UK unless the organic standards and certification systems in their country of origin are deemed equivalent to those imposed by the EC Regulations.