Updated standards for Great Britain and Northern Ireland and a pause on some Soil Association packaging standards

Updated Soil Association standards are now available on our website.

These standards updates are not relevant for Soil Association Certification clients on the following schemes:

• Health and Beauty

• Textiles

• Forestry

View the summary of changes to standards for Great Britain

 

Updates to standards for clients in Northern Ireland

A number of fertilisers, feed additives and processing aids are now permitted under Soil Association higher standards following feedback to the consultation on these substances, which took place in winter 2026. Thank you to everyone who took part.

View the summary of changes to standards for Northern Ireland

 

Packaging standards pause

Following feedback from clients the implementation of 2024/25 updated packaging standards has been paused.

Whenever the Soil Association higher standards are reviewed, the focus is achieving impact through best practice and reasonable implementation. The implementation of the updated packaging standards has highlighted challenges with conveying technical information about packaging through supply chains and so has been paused until further notice whilst Soil Association undertake a further review. This is an important topic which we are committed to getting right.

If you would like to provide any feedback please contact standards@soilassociation.org.