Under the new Regulation (EC) No 834/2007 for organic products, the use of the EU Logo becomes mandatory for pre-packaged organic food pro-duced within the EU from July 2010 onwards (see Art. 97 of Regulation (EC) No 889/2008).
For any organic products (pre-packaged and non pre-packaged) imported from third countries, the use of the EU Logo is optional (Art. 24 of Regula-tion (EC) No 834/2007). However, whenever the EU Logo is used, the following additional elements need to be placed in the immediate vicinity of the Logo: the code number of the inspection body and an indication of geographical origin (EU Agriculture, non-EU Agriculture, EU/non-EU Agriculture). Re-maining stocks of packaging material in accordance with Reg. 2092/91 may continue to be used until 1st January 2012. The use of additional national or private logos continues to be permitted.
 
All organic products (even if produced on contract) which leave the operation to be transported to other units, including wholesalers and retailers, need to be labelled with the following indications:

• name and address of the operator and, where different, of the owner or seller of the product
• name of the product
• “certified organic by IMO" or "certified organic by IMO SCESp 004
• lot number (if applicable)

Final consumer packages for products with less than 95 % certified organic ingredients (by weight of in-gredients of agricultural origin) are labelled with the following indications:

• code number of control body of operator who carried out the most recent production or preparation operation, in case of use of the community logo immediately below the logo;
• in the list of ingredients it is indicated which ingredients are organic;
• in the list of ingredients, the total percentage of certified organic ingredients (of agricultural ingredi-ents) is indicated;
• the community logo is NOT used and "organic" is NOT marked in the sales description.

Final consumer packages for products with the main ingredient originating from hunting or fishing are la-belled with the following indications:

• code number of control body of operator who carried out the most recent production or preparation operation, in case of use of the community logo immediately below the logo;
• in the list of ingredients, it is indicated which ingredients are organic;
• in the list of ingredients, the total percentage of certified organic ingredients (of agricultural ingredi-ents) is indicated;
• “organic” may be written in relation to the organic ingredients, in the same visual field as the sales description;
• the community logo is NOT used and "organic" is NOT marked in the sales description.

Final consumer packages for products with more than 95 % certified organic ingredients (by weight of in-gredients of agricultural origin) need to be labelled with the following indications:

• code number of control body of operator who carried out the most recent production or preparation operation, in case of use of the community logo immediately below the logo;
• in the list of ingredients it is indicated which ingredients are organic;
• “organic” may be written in the sales description;
• if the community logo is used, its layout meets the requirements described in 889/2008, Annex XI;
• if the community logo is used, it is indicated either "EU Agriculture", "non-EU Agriculture" or "EU/non-EU Agriculture" in the same visual field as the logo, immediately below the code number, or:
• if all agricultural raw materials are farmed in the same country, this indication may be replaced or completed by indication of the country of origin;
• "EU Agriculture", "non-EU Agriculture" indication does not appear more prominent than sales de-scription (colour, size, style);
• for indication of origin as "EU Agriculture", "Non-EU Agriculture", maximum 2 % of ingredients of different origin have been disregarded;
• the indications are marked in an easy visible place, clearly legible and indelible.

The Community logo shall not be used in case of in-conversion products or products where the organic indication may only be used in the list of ingredients (Art. 23 of Regulation (EC) No 834/2007).

On March 31, 2010, the new EU organic logo, introduced by Commission Regulation (EU) No 271/2010 was published in the Official Journal of the European Union.
From July 1, 2010, the organic logo of the EU will be obligatory on all pre-packaged organic products that have been produced in any of the EU Member States and meet the necessary standards. The new logo can now be downloaded at the EU organic webpage .
Products with the old EU logo can be sold until stocks are exhausted. Packaging material with the old logo and code numbers can be used until 1 July 2012 if the product complies with Regulation (EC) 834/2007 in all other aspects other than the labelling. The logo can be printed in green and white or black and white. In addition, if the packaging is dark the logo can be printed in a negative format, and when a coloured logo is printed on a coloured background an outer line to make a better contrast between the logo and the background is permitted. The logo can be combined with other logos or texts referring to organic farming provided the nature of the EU logo is not changed. The code number can be placed in the same visual field as the logo but does not have to be placed directly beneath. For more information see text of EU Regulation 271/2010; or contact the official user manual.

>> For further information regarding EU certification and/or labelling please contact Ms. Katharina Yanez Exner, ky@imo.ch
 
>> Back to Regulation Section, EU Regulation
>> Requirements and IMO certification procedures for EU Regulation (EC) No 834/2007 and (EC) No 889/2008