Food Law News - EU - 1999

22 December 1999: ORGANIC/LABELLING - Commission approves EU logo for organic food


Commission Press Release (IP/99/1026), 22 December 1999

Commission approves EU logo for organic food

The European Commission has adopted a regulation to create a European Union logo to label agricultural organically produced farm- and foodstuffs. The logo will allow producers to increase awareness amongst consumers and to provide them with an interesting marketing tool. The existence of this logo acts as a genuine guarantee for all European consumers, making it clear that the special quality of the product lies in its organic production.

The logo can only be used on agricultural crop products and on foodstuffs containing 95 % organic ingredients. The products must have been submitted to the inspection system throughout the entire production and preparation process including processing, packaging and labelling.

The use of the logo is optional for the operators. It can also be used in combination with other private or national logos which identify products from organic production.

The logo has a similar presentation as the logos which have been developed for protected designations of origin and protected geographical and for traditional specialities. The graphics of the logo combines neatly with the 12-star symbol of the EU. It can be used in a coloured (blue and green), or in a white/black presentation. For each language the terminology co-responding to "organic farming" has been established. It can also be used in a presentation with two languages.


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