Importing organic food

Tuesday 30 September 2003

If you are importing a product that will be sold as organic, you must make sure you comply with the law.

Foods from inside the EU can be imported into the UK and sold as organic, as long as they have been produced or processed by a company that is registered with an approved organic-certification body within the EU.

There are a few countries outside the EU where production rules and inspection systems for some products are equivalent to those in the EU. You can import products from these countries and sell them as organic without getting approval first, as long as they meet certain conditions.

It is possible to import products from other non-EU countries and sell them as organic, but you must get approval from the Organic Farming Branch of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) in advance.