Organic food in Northern Ireland: labelling rules

Contents:

Label food as organic 
List organic ingredients in non-organic products 
Display the EU logo 
 

You must register with one of the organic control bodies operating in Northern Ireland if you produce or sell organic food and you want to label it as organic.

You can decide which body to register with based on your location and needs.

Label food as organic

You can only label pre-packed foods ‘organic’ if at least 95% of the ingredients are organic.

Your food label must state:

• where the product’s agricultural ingredients were produced:
• ‘EU Agriculture’, where the agricultural raw material has been farmed in the EU;
• ‘non-EU Agriculture’, where the agricultural raw material has been farmed in third countries;
• ‘EU/non-EU Agriculture’, where part of the agricultural raw materials has been farmed in the EU and a part of it has been farmed in a third country.

Please note, the above indications ‘EU’ or ‘non-EU’ may be replaced or supplemented by a country in the case where all agricultural raw materials of which the product is composed have been farmed in that country. Therefore, if all the agricultural raw materials have been farmed in Northern Ireland, then the operator may identify them with either of the following: 

• UK (NI) Agriculture
• United Kingdom (Northern Ireland) Agriculture
• EU Agriculture

The phrases ‘NI Agriculture’ and ‘Northern Ireland Agriculture’ alone may not be used.

• your control body code “XI-ORG-XX”.

If you’re a retailer, you can label products ‘organic’ as long as:

• at least 95% of the product’s farmed ingredients are organic
• you sell direct to customers in your shop – this applies to all retailers from farm shops to supermarkets
• you have not imported the organic product

List organic ingredients in non-organic products

You can list ingredients in non-organic food products as organic so long as they meet EU organic standards. For example, your label can say ‘organic sugar’ on a food package that contains non-organic ingredients. You must also include the control body’s code number on the label.

Display the EU logo

You must use the EU organic logo on organic food produced in Northern Ireland.