Organic food: labelling and advertising rules

When

You must be certified by an approved UK organic control body if you canproduce, labelprepare, yourstore, productimport, asexport ‘organic’

You can only label foodsfood as ‘organic’, or use terms relating to organic production methods, if:

• it meets organic production rules
• at least 95% of the product’s agricultural ingredients are organic
• all other ingredients, additives and processing aids are listed as permitted within the organic regulations
• the product, its labels and any suppliers are certified by an approved UK organic control body

Contact your control body for guidance on organic production rules.

Other terms relating to organic methods include:

• ‘bio’
• ‘eco’
• ‘organically grown’
• ‘organically produced’
• ‘grown or produced using organic principles’
• ‘grown or produced using organic methods’

The rules also apply to company names,names or brand names. For example, you could not use the name ‘Smith’s Organic’ for a non-organic product or business.

You are breaking the law if you call a food product ‘organic’ if it has not been inspected and certified.

If your productorganic food has less than 95% of organic ingredients

IfYou must be certified by an approved UK organic control body if both of the following apply:

• your productorganic food contains less than 95% organic agricultural ingredients and
• you wish to make organic claims on the productlabelling labelling, or in the marketing, you must obtain certification for your product from an organic control body.
  marketing

You can only use ‘organic’ in the ingredients list on the label or accompanying documentation. You cannot include ‘organic’ in the product name or description. For example, the ingredients panel of your label may include ‘organic sugar’ in a list of other ingredients.

Register with a UK organic control body

ToIf labelyou use organic terms anywhere on your product aslabels, organic, you must registerget withthem oneapproved ofby theyour approved UK organic control bodiesbody. in order to be certified. You can decide which control body to register with based on your location and business needs.

If you use a third party to carry out your labelling, then they will also need to be subjectregistered toand theseapproved labellingby requirements.an organic control body.

If you do not comply with the labellinglabel requirements, your control body could stop you labelling your productsfood as organic.

What you need to include on your labelling

You must include:

• your control body code number
• a statement of agricultural origin

Control body code number

Your food label must include your control body’s code number. For producefood originating in the UK, the code number format is ‘GB-ORG-XX’.

OperatorsIf exportingyou toare thirdexporting countriesyour (EUfood, andyou non-EU) must also include the ‘GB-ORG-XX’ code. The code shows the productsfood areis certified to the Great Britain organic domestic regulations.

Non-UK organic producefood usually has a different 3-letter code. The code is normally ‘BIO’.has the format ‘XX-BIO-XXX’.

Find the codes you need for food:

• from outside the UK in the non-UK organic registers
• from within the UK in the list of controlapproved bodiesUK andorganic control authorities.
  bodies

Statement of agricultural origin

You must include one of the following statements on new labels on all organic pre-packed productsfood produced in Great Britain:

• ‘UK Agriculture’ – whereif the agricultural ingredients are produced in the UK
• ‘UK or non-UK Agriculture’ – whereif the productfood is produced using a mixture of agricultural ingredients grown in the UK and outside the UK
• ‘Non-UK Agriculture’ – whereif the agricultural ingredients are produced outside the UK

You must not remove or deliberately omit this information.

An operator can use more specific references if 98% of a product’sfood’s agricultural ingredients are grown in a specific area. For example, milk from Northern Ireland can be labelled as ‘Northern Irish Agriculture’, or Welsh lamb can be labelled as ‘Welsh Agriculture’.

You mustcan makecontinue theseto labellinguse changesexisting tolabels productson food for the UK market byuntil 31 December 2023. When printing new labels, you should comply with the new labelling requirements. You must not remove or deliberately omit mandatory information.

Using the EU logo

IncludingYou may include the EU organic logo on Great Britain domestic regulations organic food orproduced feedin isGreat optional.Britain. If used,you do, the organicfood product must meet the EU organic labelling requirements and include an EU statement of agricultural origin (‘EU’ or ‘Non-EU Agriculture’).

If you use the EU organic logo for Great Britain domestic regulations exports to the EU, you must include an EU statement of agricultural origin (‘EU’ or ‘Non-EU Agriculture’). You must also include a UK statement of agriculture.agricultural origin.

Download the EU logo

Organic regulations

In Great Britain the following regulations apply:

• Retained Council Regulation (EC) 834/2007
• Retained Commission Regulation (EC) 889/2008
• Retained Commission Regulation (EC) 1235/2008
• The Organics Products Regulations 2009