Using the Organic Symbol
Symbol use
The Soil Association organic symbol is the most widely recognised in the UK and appears on over 70% of all organic products.
It is a registered certification mark (®) of Soil Association Limited. You may only use the symbol on your products if you hold a valid certificate of registration from us. You must only use it for organic products identified on your trading schedule. Use of our symbol is controlled through specific guidelines provided in chapter two of our organic standards.
Below is a comprehensive summary of these guidelines but please consult the full standards for definitive guidance. All use of the symbol must be approved by your certification officer, the Soil Association organic symbol is a registered trademark, unauthorised use may result in legal action. The symbol files can be downloaded at the bottom of this page.
Using the Soil Association symbol
You may use the symbol on company stationery, promotional literature and websites if we certify your entire product range, otherwise you must only use the symbol if you state clearly which products, lines or ranges it applies to. All uses of the symbol must be approved by your certification officer prior to marketing, see the full standards for details.
You must use our symbol on the final (consumer) packaging of the products we certify except where we agree there is a good reason for not doing so.
We have created a quick checklist to help guide you through the key labelling requirements, you can get to it by clicking here.
Note – examples of exceptions we might agree are:
- on temporary or off-the-shelf labels or packaging
- where the label is so small that it would jeopardise other information required by law
- where the supply of ingredients complying with our standards is variable so
- the product cannot always carry the symbol
What the symbol should look like
You must reproduce the symbol from original artwork. Please contact your certification officer or contact the marketing team for a copy of the symbol.
The symbol must appear:
- complete and upright
- in proportion to the product description
- at least 10mm in diameter (example 'A')
- in black or white (examples 'B' and 'C')
- clearly visible
- clear and legible over the whole of a background, for example if used over a photograph (example 'D'), and
- no less prominent than the EU logo.
You must ask us if you wish to use the symbol at a smaller size than 10mm in diameter (for example on very small packaging) or in a colour other than black and white.
The symbol should be:
- on the main face of the label or packaging
- in proportion to the product description, but it works best if it is at least 12mm in diameter, and
- placed on a clear background that extends 30% beyond the area of the symbol (for example 3mm around a symbol 10mm in diameter)
The symbol must not appear:
- against a background that affects the legibility of the symbol (example 'E')
- incomplete
- at an angle
- within an extra circle either of an outline or solid colour (example 'F')
- in more than one colour (example 'G'), or
- with a different font or typeface (example 'H').
A version of the Soil Association Organic symbol is available in Welsh and Gaelic.
The approved product symbol
You may use the approved product symbol on non-organic products such as salt and agricultural inputs certified under our approved products scheme. You may not use the Soil Association organic symbol on these products. Please ask us if you would like further information on this scheme.
