Organic sourcing requirements for Soil Association Certification licensees

At the end of September, we informed you of some changes to the organic approvals process. These changes mean that, for many products, you are no longer required to resubmit details for our approval every time you change supplier. However, we do still require you to resubmit an updated MIPs or SIPs in certain situations, including where you want to add a supplier for a product/ingredient where the Soil Association has sourcing requirements. These Soil Association requirements are in addition to legal organic requirements and are set out in SA standard 6.10.1 and in the Sourcing Organic Ingredients annex.

In line with this updated approvals process, Soil Association Certification licensees who use products or ingredients where the Soil Association has sourcing requirements should by now have received an ‘SA-Accepted Products’ list from us. The list should include all suppliers you use for the following types of organic products or ingredients:

• Poultry, pork or venison
• Other meat or offal, farmed or slaughtered outside the UK
• Eggs
• Fish, prawns or other aquaculture animals

The list does not include suppliers we certify to Soil Association standards.

At your inspection, inspectors may check the suppliers you have used against your ‘Soil Association Accepted Products’ list to confirm you meet standard 6.10.1.  

If you use products or ingredients where the Soil Association has sourcing requirements, but haven’t yet received an ‘SA-Accepted Products’ list from us, please contact your Certification Officer with details of the ingredient and suppliers that should be listed.