WRG's licence has been suspended and the company banned from using the logo on its Nature Mix compost because its bags described the product as 'organic'.
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Sarah Hardy of the Association explained: “For a product to be labelled as 'organic' under our scheme it would have to contain ingredients of organic agricultural origin. Obviously most commercial composts don't.”
“There are lots of different criteria for joining our scheme and one of those is not to mislead people buying the product as to what it is. One example would be calling green waste compost 'organic' unless it contained ingredients of organic agricultural origin.”
Mistake
WRG general manager of external affairs Mike Snell said: “Owing to a misunderstanding and mistake on our part the wording on newly introduced packaging of the compost breached the guidelines set out by the Soil Association.”
He added the company had covered up the logos and word 'organic' on recently printed bags and had plans for new packaging to comply with the Association's concerns. “We will now consider re-applying for accreditation,” he said.
The Soil Association certifies 4,000 companies, most of which are farmers. Ms Hardy said it had a duty to organic farmers to ensure composts were correctly labelled. “Our main business is the certification of farms as organic. The scheme is there as a service for organic producers to understand which products they can and can't use and not risk the status of their organic crops.”
Criteria
Composts carry the Soil Association's logo if they meet the criteria set out in EU Regulation 2092/91 on organic production of agricultural products.
Ms Hardy said she could not comment on individual cases but stressed that because suspension from the scheme could result from incorrect labelling it did not necessarily put the integrity of a product in doubt.
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