Organic certification and labelling in the United States

In 1990 Congress passed the Organic Food Production Act (OFPA). The overarching objective of the OFPA was to ensure that all agricultural products marked as organic would, in the future, meet consistent and uniform standards. The United States Department of Agriculture’s National Organic Program (NOP) delivered, and continues to deliver, upon this objective. Contact details for the United States Department of Agriculture appear below.

Since October 21 2002, every product sold in the United States claiming organic status, whether domestic or imported, has been required to adhere to the USDA’s National Organic Program.

Certification

Any product in the United States that is labelled as “100% organic”, “organic”, or “made with organic ingredients”, must be certified. Certification provides assurance that the product complies with standards mandated by the NOP. These standards are comprehensive and cover every aspect of organic farming, processing, transportation, labelling and packaging. The standards specifically preclude the use of synthetic pesticides, herbicides and fungicides, antibiotics, growth hormones, sewage sludge, artificial fertilizers, GMOs and irradiation.

Labelling

The USDA’s strict labelling rules are your guide to understanding the exact organic content of the food you buy. When you go shopping, look for the USDA Organic seal. A copy of the seal appears to the right of this text. Only products that have at least 95 percent of their ingredients derived from organic production methods are permitted to use the USDA Organic seal. The USDA Organic seal is your assurance that the food you are purchasing is in fact organic. Particularly if you’re new to organics, this is one symbol that you should commit to memory before going shopping.

Labelling of single ingredient food items

Foods consisting of only one ingredient, for example, pieces of fruit, vegetables, packages of meat, cheese, eggs or cartons of milk, are only permitted to use the word “organic”, and make use of the USDA Organic seal, if they are 100 percent organic. Single ingredient items that are not 100 percent organic are not permitted to lay claim to being organic. After all, it would not make sense to describe and label an apple as being 76 percent organic. An apple is either organic - and therefore 100 percent organic - or it’s not. There exists no middle ground. This means that when you’re out shopping, you can be confident that any single ingredient food product labelled as organic, and making use of the USDA Organic seal, is in fact 100 percent organic.

Labelling of foods with more than one ingredient

Foods comprised of a number of different ingredients, such as breakfast cereals, bakery products and yogurts, fall into one of four labelling categories. The percentage of organic ingredients a product contains determines which of the four labelling categories it belongs to. The four categories, and the labelling permitted for each, is explained below.

100 percent organic products

At least 95 percent organic products

At least 70 percent organic products

Less than 70 percent organic products