Soil Association Certification is the UK’s leading organic certifier. We offer a huge range of organic and sustainable certification schemes across food, farming, catering, health and beauty, textiles and forestry.

Soil Association Certification is the wholly owned subsidiary of the Soil Association - we’re part of a charity with a mission. When you certify with us, we make sure your interests are represented. Together Soil Association and Soil Association Certification are in constant dialogue with other standard setters, certifiers, and industry groups and movements both in the UK and internationally.

As an independent charity organization, the Soil Association is not swayed by the government or any interest groups.For all schemes we operate, we are an impartial and non-discriminatory control body responsible for ensuring compliance with the respective standards.

So, when you join us, you're supporting our drive for healthy, humane and sustainable food, farming and land use. Profits from our certification services are gift aided to the Soil Association charity to fund their game-changing work. Work that is transforming the way we live, farm and grow.

Why does the Soil Association have higher standards?

The Soil Association wants to ensure the highest possible standards of animal welfare, environmental and wildlife protection, so we have our own higher – or stricter – standards in key areas.

We have higher standards because we want to drive change. The Soil Association had standards on livestock, wine production and fish farming before they became enshrined in EU law. We have also developed trustworthy standards for areas which were not supported in EU law, such as health and beauty, and textiles.

How certification works

For a food product to be labelled as organic, every organisation working up and down its supply chain – from farmers, to packers, to food processors, and organic retailers – have to meet organic standards and prove it to an organic certification body.

  • All organic farms and food companies are thoroughly inspected at least once a year. They also need robust systems in place and paperwork that shows the standards are being met the rest of the time.
  • Once organic farms and food companies are certified as meeting strict organic standards, they are issued with a certificate and a trading schedule. This lists all the crops, livestock or products they are certified to trade as organic. This certificate acts like a passport and is necessary to prove the organic status of the goods when they are sold on.
  • When products are imported from countries outside of the EU, they not only have to be accompanied by an organic certificate, but they also need a Certificate of Import. This verifies the product is produced to organic standards equivalent to those in the EU.
  • To ensure that organic certification is carried out consistently, the inspectors themselves are inspected every year. Checks are made by accreditation bodies such as UKAS and UK certification bodies are required to regularly report to the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

This might sound like a complex bureaucratic process, but it’s designed to ensure that organic food is food you can trust. The system needs to work whether you’re buying veg directly from a farmer or spices in a supermarket where ingredients may have come from smallholders on the other side of the world.


Soil Association organic standards are among the best in the world

This is how organic certification works the world over. We’re proud that the Soil Association has one of the most rigorous and transparent certification processes we’ve ever come across.

Our standards are still driving change today. For example, the routine use of antibiotics is not allowed in organic farming under the EU Organic Regulation, but our higher standards go further. We explicitly restrict any use of antibiotics which are critically important for human health, and are working to influence the EU Organic Regulation to come into line with our standard.


The Soil Association works to drive change towards best practice in the food and farming sector

One way we do this is by setting higher organic standards than the legal minimum where we know they will make a difference. This ensures that our logo on pack represents the highest possible levels of animal welfare, environmental protection and food quality throughout our supply chains to the best of our ability. It also inspires other organic standard setters and regulators to consider the evidence and adopt similar standards.

We would love to guarantee that all ingredients being sourced by our processors comply with all Soil Association higher standards.

https://www.soilassociation.org/our-standards/what-are-organic-standards/

https://www.soilassociation.org/our-standards/how-are-organic-standards-set/working-together-for-better-sourcing/


Cosmo -Standard

 

The COSMOS-standard is managed by a not-for-profit, international and independent association.

 

The founding members (BDIH - Germany, Cosmebio - France, Ecocert - France, ICEA - Italy and the Soil Association - UK) continue to bring their combined expertise to the continuous development and management of the COSMOS-standard. 



 

There are four main certification signatures that comprise the COSMOS-standard, which are for ORGANIC, NATURAL, COSMOS CERTIFIED and COSMOS APPROVED products.


Cosmos Organic's organic certification standard is currently the most watched organic certification in the world with the highest and most stringent standard requirements. The standard requirements are as follows:

  • 95% of all physically processed agro-ingredients* must be organic and at least 20% of the total ingredients must be organic.(vs Ecocert Standard imposes that a minimum of 95% of the total ingredients come from natural origin and  a minimum of 10% of all ingredients by weight must come from organic farming.)
  • source of raw material, planting/breeding method, product manufacturing process, packaging, storage method, production environment management...must comply with COSMOS ORGANIC standards
  • The raw materials must not be contaminated by the following substances: heavy metals, aromatic hydrocarbons, chemical pesticides, petrochemical ingredients, dioxin, radioactive substances, mycotoxins, growth hormones or drug residues
  • synthetic fragrances or coloring, Paraben preservatives, mineral oil, silicone, genetic modification and other related ingredients is not allowed.
  • Only use ingredients derived from live animals, such as milk and honey
  • The packaging needs to use recyclable and environmentally friendly materials
  • The product cannot be tested on animals. The raw materials cannot be tested on animals unless required by local laws