Guidance

Organic food: labelling and advertising rules

Rules on labelling food, feed and seed as organic or using organic production terms if you produce, prepare, store, import, export or sell organic food in the UK.

• From: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
• Published: 29 April 2016
• Last updated: 21 April 2023 — See all updates

You must be certified by an approved UK organic control body if you produce, prepare, store, import, export or sell organic food in the UK.

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

• it meets organic production rules
• at least 95% of the 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:

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

The rules also apply to company 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 organic food has less than 95% organic ingredients

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

• your organic food contains less than 95% organic agricultural ingredients
• you wish to make organic claims on the labelling or in the 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.

Get your label approved by a UK organic control body

If you use organic terms anywhere on your product labels, you must get them approved by your approved UK organic control body. 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, they will also need to be registered and approved by an organic control body.

If you do not comply with the label requirements, your control body could stop you labelling your food 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 food originating in the UK, the code number format is ‘GB-ORG-XX’.

If you are exporting your food, you must also include the ‘GB-ORG-XX’ code. The code shows the food is certified to the Great Britain organic domestic regulations.

Non-UK organic food usually has a different 3-letter code. The code normally 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 approved UK organic control bodies

Statement of agricultural origin

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

• ‘UK Agriculture’ – if the agricultural ingredients are produced in the UK
• ‘UK or non-UK Agriculture’ – if the food is produced using a mixture of agricultural ingredients grown in the UK and outside the UK
• ‘Non-UK Agriculture’ – if 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 food’s agricultural ingredients are grown in a specific area. For example, Welsh lamb can be labelled as ‘Welsh Agriculture’.

You can continue to use existing labels on food for the UK market until 31 December 2023.

Using the EU logo

You may include the EU organic logo on organic food produced in Great Britain. If you do, the food must meet the EU organic labelling requirements and include an EU statement of agricultural origin (‘EU’ or ‘Non-EU Agriculture’).

You must also include a UK statement of agricultural origin.

Download the EU logo

Published 29 April 2016
Last updated 21 April 2023 + show all updates

1. 21 April 2023

   Removed 'bio' and 'eco' from the list of terms related to organic methods.

2. 20 September 2022

   Updated the statement of agricultural origin labelling guidance. Great Britain labelling changes have been delayed from 30 September 2022 until 31 December 2023.

3. 26 January 2022

   Added links to the organic regulations and other terms relating to organic methods.

4. 25 March 2021

   The page has been updated to clarify the what labels must state, and what the control body code numbers are.

5. 29 April 2016

   First published.