Foodlaw-Reading

Dr David Jukes, The University of Reading, UK

Providng access to food law since May 1996

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Last updated:18 January, 2023

Organic Food

Providing access to the EU and UK legislation

On this page:

  • Summary - Brief details of the chronology of developments linked to this topic
  • EU Legislation - Listing of Regulations covering the topic
  • UK Legislation - Listing of Regulations covering the topic

Summary

The first EU-wide controls establishing a framework of rules and procedures for the recognition of foods as 'organic' were adopted in 1992 by Regulation 2092/91. In the following years, this was subject to nearly 50 amendments. One amendment, adopted in December 1999 (Regulation 331/2000) introduced an EU logo for use on qualifying products. The framework controls were finally replaced by an updated regulation adopted in 2007 - Regulation 834/2007. This Regulation again provided for both the requirements for organic production and for the labelling of organic products. It was supported by a separate regulation providing detailed implementing rules (Regulation 889/2008). The requirements for the EU logo were contained in this implementing Regulation. Due to concerns that the logo was not distinctive (and potentially confused with those used for other quality marks), it was replaced by an updated version introduced as an amendment by Regulation 271/2010 - this is the current logo..

In addition to the main requirements, controls were developed for additional specific issues. For example, following the adoption of Regulation 2092/91, an additional regulation was adopted in 1992 (Regulation 94/92) providing detailed rules relating to organic foods imported from third countries. These rules have also been updated and are now contained in Regulation 1235/2008.

A further updating of the controls took place in May 2018 with the adoption of a new framework regulation - Regulation 2018/848. This was intended to come into effect on 1 January 2021 but, due to the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, has been delayed until 1 January 2022.

For the Commission's page on this topic, see: Organic Farming.


EU Law

 

Current Framework Regulation:

Current Supporting Measures:

See also:

The following were due to apply from 1 January 2021 but have been postponed to apply from 1 January 2022.

New Framework Regulation:

New Supporting Measures


UK Legislation

Brexit: Prior to the IP Completion Day (31 December 2020), the legal requirements given in the EU Regulations listed above still applied to the UK. Since IP Completion Day, the EU Regulations above have been incorporated into UK legislation but with amendments to correct deficiencies. Information on this is given below. For more details of the process of incorporating EU legislation into UK law, see the separate page: UK Food Law: EU Legislation as Amended for the UK. Provisions for the enforcement of the controls (originally the EU Regulations but now as amended) have been provided in the UK Regulations listed below. For Northern Ireland, EU rules still apply.

Guidance (provided by Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs):

EU Legislation with links to legislation.gov.uk: amended for application in Great Britain:

Enforcement

The enforcement of the controls was originally provided by a sinlge regulation for the whole of the United Kingdom but, as part of the EU Single Market, separate rules have been introduced for Northern Ireland:


This page was first provided on 14 February 2021

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