Organic Labelling Update

DEFRA have confirmed an extension to the date originally set to update labels following the UK exit from the EU, including the changes required to the mandatory Statement of Origin for the agricultural raw materials used in organic products for the UK market, to 31^st December 2023.  So current stocks can continue to be used up, however, where labelling/packaging is being updated before this date it must include the revised requirements.  You must not remove or deliberately omit mandatory information.

 Remember where 98% of a products agricultural ingredients are farmed in Scotland ‘Scottish Agriculture’ can be used as the UK agricultural statement of origin.  The agricultural statement (Scottish Agriculture or UK Agriculture, UK/Non-UK Agriculture or Non-UK Agriculture) needs to be placed directly below the GB-ORG-17 certification body code (the compulsory code for all SOPA Members to use or the code of the packer if done by a third party) on the packaging/labelling.

 If an organic product is being sold solely in the GB market (Scotland, England &Wales) then the use of the EU logo is optional. However, if the EU logo is used (whether the product is for sale in the EU/NI or GB) both the EU (EU Agriculture, Non EU Agriculture or EU/Non EU Agriculture) and UK (as detailed above) agricultural origin statements would have to be detailed one below the other on labelling (UK statement below EU).

The use of the SOPA logo is voluntary at this time but encouraged.  The SOPA logo is available in different file formats and in b&w or colour.  With the use the EU logo voluntary, it would be possible to substitute it with the SOPA logo on labels instead.

Contact SOPA Member Services by email or by phone to request permission to use the SOPA logo on your labels.

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Please be cautioned that all label and artwork updates for each product included on your certificate need to be approved by the OF&G Scotland Processor Certification team before committing to print.  Pdf proofs of labels/artwork should be emailed.

 Provided the proofs can be granted approval in terms of compliance to the organic labelling requirements they will be stamped with an approval mark/signed with a copy of the approved version kept on your file and a copy returned to you for your own records.  When submitting the proofs, the size of the EU logo in mm must also be supplied where applicable.

The aimed turnaround time by the processing certification team for labels and artwork is 48 hours.   We appreciate that sometimes there are cases where label/artwork approval are required at short notice therefore we would ask that in these circumstances any email be followed up with a telephone call to confirm this can be achieved.

Please note that we only check that labels comply with the regulations for organic standards.  You may also wish to contact your local trading standards office with regards to statutory labelling requirements before printing takes place.

If you have any queries on the organic labelling requirements these should be directed to your OF&G Scotland Processor Certification Officer (CO).

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