EU Organic Regulation (EU) 2018/848

Where it Applies

• Import of organic frozen fruit

  The documentary route every organic consignment into the EU has to follow.

• Conversion planning

  Conversion periods apply before land output can be sold as organic, which is why supply planning starts years ahead.

• Parallel production control

  Sites running organic and conventional lines need separation, identification and records that survive a mass balance check.

• Organic honey and the foraging radius

  Honey is the hardest organic certification in the range, because bees forage over an area the beekeeper does not control. Certification turns on hive siting relative to conventional agriculture and pollution sources, hive materials, permitted varroa treatments and feeding rules, rather than on anything analysable in the drum.

• Organic grain and oilseed segregation

  For ambient commodities the certification question is segregation, not input use alone. Dedicated or fully cleaned storage, lined containers, sealed loads with recorded seal numbers and a documented mass balance are what an inspector follows, and a bare container with an unknown history breaks the chain regardless of how the crop was grown.

How it Compares

Positioning against neighbouring schemes.

• Versus a food safety scheme

  Organic is a legal regime about how food is produced. BRCGS or IFS is a private scheme about whether it is safe. Buyers of organic goods need both.

• Versus private organic labels

  Private labels can add requirements on top but cannot substitute for the EU regime for goods sold as organic in the EU.