Certified Organic Food Packaging Labels

If you like eating organic food in order to reduce the amount of chemicals going into your body then you’re not alone, the organic food market is well established and is growing fast.

New Zealand is an unregulated organics market that means some companies can promote their products as being more organic and sustainable than they actually are.

In New Zealand to be confident that food labelled as ‘organic’ is what you expect, you’d be wise to look on the packaging for official organic certification labels. Certified organic products have been checked, audited and certified by a trusted certification agency who look at how food has been produced and set standards for the methods used to control pests and for the treatment of livestock. Most organic labels exclude products from genetically modified crops.

Some of the most common organic labels found on foods in New Zealand are:

BioGro

BioGro is a New Zealand organisation owned by the New Zealand Biological Producers and Consumer Society, a registered not-for-profit that works to increase awareness of certified organic products. Its BioGro logo is the most common organic certification logo in New Zealand. You can rest assured that organic products displaying the BioGro logo have been made without genetic modification, animal cruelty or the use of synthetic pesticides and herbicides.

AsureQuality

AsureQuality started in the early 1900s as part of the New Zealand Government’s Department of Agriculture and is still owned by the New Zealand Government and run as a commercial business. They are the most accredited supplier of independent auditing, inspection and testing to the food and agricultural industries in the Southern Hemisphere.

OrganicFarmNZ

OrganicFarmNZ certification is designed to be a low cost option for smaller growers who want to supply the domestic market only. Their certification follows the standards set by BioGro.

Demeter

Demeter is a worldwide certification system that operates in over 50 countries. In 1928 they were the first in the world to introduce ecological labeling. Their certifier in New Zealand is the Bio Dynamic Farming and Gardening Association. They focus on biodynamic agriculture methods to assess the farmers and processors they certify. 

Posted 7 January 2016