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The need to know on the new organic legislation

On 14th June 2018 the EU bought in new legislation which you should be aware of if you sell organic coffee – it will apply from January 2021.

The most important message to remember which has not changed is that unless you are certified with an organic body, you cannot mark the coffee you sell as ‘organic’ on the packaging. 

This is a labelling law and it is illegal to label the coffee organic unless you are certified organic.

Full new regulations here:
On 14th June, Regulation (EU) 2018/848 of the European Parliament and of the Council on organic production and labelling of organic products was published in the EU Official Journal here.

The new legislation will apply from 1 January 2021.

A useful summary here:
You can access a useful IFOAM EU summary with the main changes and impacts for organic farmers, processors and certifiers here.

How does this affect you?

That depends on who your organic certifying body is.

There are nine approved UK organic control bodies (find the list here) and each has a different set of regulations. They all have to comply with the harmonised EU rules, but some will go beyond the minimum EU standards.

We are registered with the Soil Association.

You can find the current set of regulations here (you can also find this on the Soil Association Website) and the amendments here.

You will have to contact your organic certifying body if you are registered with one of the other 8 bodies for information on their amendments.

However, the basic principles remain the same.

Unless you are certified with an organic body, you cannot mark the coffee you sell as ‘organic’ on the packaging.
If you have any questions, contact your trader for more information.