About Soil Association Certification

Soil Association Certification is a leading global certification body. We offer a huge range of organic and sustainable certification schemes across food, farming, forestry, nature markets, beauty and textiles. Operating in over 50 countries across the world, we are an industry leader and engage with stakeholders at all levels to champion best practice in sustainable land management solutions, from farms and forests through to supply chains, regulation and policymaking.

We work with integrity and dedication to deliver trusted solutions with nature, for people and planet. Our highly qualified colleagues are committed to delivering the highest levels of service to support your success and growth.

Our accreditation

We hold multiple accreditations to allow us to deliver the various certification schemes we offer.

Organic inspection and certification schemes

All of our organic certification schemes require us to hold ISO17065 accreditation, which is the international standard for bodies operating product certification systems. Our systems are scrutinised by third party auditors who assess our methods of inspection, conformity assessment, competence, organisational structure, relationships with related bodies, quality management and internal control. This ensures we are operating a certification system in a ‘consistent and reliable manner’.

We are the sole certifier for the Soil Association standards. The Soil Association standards incorporate the requirements of the GB and EU organic regulations. This means our certification allows you to legally market your food and feed products as organic. It also permits you to use the Soil Association organic symbol on pack.

For products within the scope of the regulation, Defra is the competent authority in Great Britain, and NICA is the competent authority in Northern Ireland.

We are accredited by UKAS for the Soil Association standards. Copies of our current UKAS accreditation schedule can be found online.

Other organic standards

Soil Association Certification is accredited by IOAS (Accreditation number: 16) for the following scopes of product certification:

• Canadian Organic Regime Organic Aquaculture Standard:  for producers, processors and manufacturers of aquaculture products in the UK, whose aquaculture products are destined for sale as organic in Canada

• Global Organic Textiles Standards (GOTS): for manufacturers, processors, packers, brandholders, importers, exporters, retailers and wholesalers of textile products

• Cosmetics Organic Standards:  for manufacturers, processors, packers, brand holders, importers and retailers of health and beauty care and homeware products and ingredients

Please refer to IOAS for our current information.

Forestry, wood and paper accreditation

• Forest Stewardship Council^® (FSC^®): we have been accredited by Assurance Services International (ASI) to deliver FSC Forest Management, Controlled Wood and Chain of Custody certification worldwide, since 1 July 1995 (accreditation code: ASI-APP-004; FSC Trademark License Code FSC A000525)

• Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC): we are accredited by UKAS to provide PEFC Chain of Custody and Forest Management certification in the UK and many other countries (PEFC licence code: PEFC/16-44-917)

• European Union Timber Regulation Monitoring Organisation: since 30 January 2015 we have been an approved Monitoring Organisation (MO) for the European Union Timber Regulation

Nature markets

We are accredited for the Woodland Carbon Code and the Peatland Code, both delivered in the UK where Soil Association Certification is the largest validation and verification body for these schemes.

Accreditation is to:

• ISO17029 and 14065: both covering principles and requirements of validation and verification bodies, including impartiality, management systems, process and structural requirements

• ISO14064-3: covering guidance on validations and verifications of greenhouse gas statements

• ISO14066: which covers competence of validation and verification teams, all of which are scrutinised at least annually by UKAS to ensure Soil Association Certification is delivering robust validations and verifications for codes aiming to tackle the climate and biodiversity emergencies