The New Organic Regulation is live!

On January 1, 2022, the new Organic Regulation entered force. This regulation replaces the existing European Regulations 834/2007 and 889/2008 and from this moment on contains the main rules for the production, processing, trade and labelling of organic products in the European Union ("EU").

The rules on the mandatory and optional use of the "Bio" logo and the designation "organic" are not new. It was and still is prohibited to advertise a product as organic, if the product does not comply with the European rules. But the labelling requirements are being clarified with the entry into force of the new Organic Regulation.

It is important that anyone involved in organic production, processes or products is familiar with these rules in order to avoid violations of the regulations – which sometimes even entails decertifying the organic product.

The proposal for the new Organic Regulation dates back to 2014. In particular, the explanatory memorandum to the proposal stated that under the old regulation, "the expectations of consumers in particular and citizens in general" were not sufficiently taken into account, but also that "the labelling requirements are very complicated." For this reason, the standards from the various regulations have been merged and clarified on a number of points.

Apart from trying to make the EU patchwork legislation on organic product easier to read and understand, the New Organic Regulation contains:

• Some new definitions
• Broader scope with specific new rules for certain products
• A new procedure in case of suspicion of non-compliance

The new Organic Regulation was adopted in 2018 and was supposed to enter into force on January 1, 2021. However, due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, it was decided by Regulation 2020/2042 to postpone the entry into force of the new Organic Regulation by one year to January 1, 2022. All other deadlines mentioned in the new Organic-Regulation are also extended by one year.