Under new EC legislation, organic produce sold in EU member states will soon be required to carry the EU logo.

The European Commission has accepted a proposal for new organic production regulations that endeavour to make it easier for consumers to identify legitimate organic produce in the EU.

The use of the logo or the wording ‘EU organic’ will be compulsory by in spite of individual country logos in existence.

The legislation will come into force in January 2009, while imports will have to comply by January 2007, or include equivalent logo assurances from their own countries.

The legislation will also simplify requirements for growers; under the new rules 95 per cent of the produce must be organic, however, it may contain up to 0.9 per cent genetically modified organisms content to accommodate for accidental contamination.

Organic methods under the new regulations also make some allowance for regional climate and conditions faced by growers.