How do I Know Food is Organic Without an Organic Certification Logo?
We recently had a customer email us the following questions regarding how we label our organic health foods:
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Hiya Folks, I just received my order yesterday. The buckwheat looks great. Looking forward to enjoying it. As I looked at the label, I did not see the logo of the agency that is certifying that the buckwheat is "certified organic". Other organic products that I buy have the logo. Various articles that I've read state that without the logo you cannot be truly sure it is really organic. I've seen retail outlets tape their letter of confirmation from an agency onto their front door for all to see. Would you, please, explain why the logo does not appear on the label. |
The products we source at our facility are received certified organic, labelling our products with the appropriate certification lot numbers is something we do for source transparency and to track any product issues that should arise.
Unless we go through the process of becoming a 'certified organic producer' from Ecocert themselves, we cannot put an Ecocert logo sticker on our packaging.
Adding these stickers or making these claims would be fraudulent, given we do not have the approval from Ecocert (or any other certification body for that matter).
We as retailers can call the product 'organic', or 'made with organic products', however we cannot claim 'certified organic' despite the items being repackaged completely certified organic. This is what you will commonly see in retail shops, and small shops, small cafes, etc.
Eventually, we may grow large enough to transition to a certified facility if it makes sense to do so, but currently is not economically or operationally possible for us to maintain certification for a number of reasons:
- First and foremost there is a direct cost that comes with being a certified organic producer and are used to pay staff and maintain a registered database and complete annual audits
- We would need to maintain a separate inventory ledger to be evaluated by the certification body annually which would increase the cost of our products because of the extra dedicated labour given our small team
- All mixes and recipes would need to be vetted and evaluated by the certification body to maintain certification status (so that if there is any discrepancies in the inventory ledgers a producer cannot simply claim that a 'new recipe' was developed to account for the missing product, among other things).
- Points 2. and 3. would prevent us from feasibly being able to offer any customizable organic energy bar, trail mix, cereal, or nutrition powder and at the same time maintain compliance. Registering these can take weeks and would make lead times prohibitive for casual customers.
We are passionate about what we do here at U-RAAW! Ensuring that our customers and community get nothing but the highest quality organic products, while being as accessible and affordable to as many people as possible is our priority.
If you have any questions or comments regarding food product labeling and certification, please leave a comment below!