In order for a product to be marketed as organic, the legislation has set up a frame of strict requirements and processes, which include special verification, storage and handling of goods. The respective authorities check the compliance at least once every year, sometimes unannounced as well. Since we are taking care of your fulfillment, you need to provide us with sufficient information and data to keep your certification.
Rules
Only where "Bio" or "Eco" is written on, it is "Bio" or "Eco", because "Bio" and "Eco" are protected.
REGULATION (EU) 2018/848 on organic production and labelling of organic products protects such terms in German:
"Bio- / Öko-"; "biologisch / ökologisch"; "biologischer / ökologischer Landbau"; "biologisch-dynamisch"; "biologisch-organisch"
& in English: "organic-", "bio-", "eco-"
These protected terms may only be used to describe a product if at least 95 percent of the ingredients are of agricultural origin from organic farming. Here a certificate is a must have on each product to confirm EU-Eco-Regulation + EU-Label. Moreover to understand if product is organic or not, we can try to identify the EAN. Organic EAN always starts with a "0", to see if product was produced considering organic standards.
Provide necessary certificates & information
When distributing and selling organic products, you need to have a valid certification. In case you are delivering from your producer straight to the warehouse, we would also need the corresponding certificate of your producer in order to show the supply chain to be prepared in case of an inspection. Please make sure to always send us your valid certificate.
We will need your certificate indicating:
the concerning legal basis,
your legal company address,
your certification number,
the legal entity of the control authority incl. number of control authority,
main activity the certificate is valid for and
appropriate validity of the document (signature, sign, expiry date)
Additional steps when creating products in the dashboard
name your products containing the terms “organic” or “bio”: Ideally, the SKU name contains some indication as well (e.g. BIOtea001). This helps us and the warehouses to identify organic products and to act accordingly.
enable lot & expiry tracking: If your organic products have a lot and expiry date, this is a mandatory setting. All organic products being moved along the supply chain need to be traced back at any time.
turn on the “track organic”: This will ensure that all required documents (e.g. delivery notes) will be collected by us and that all standards for organic certification will be adhered to in order to have full transparency in case of a control.
Provide correct delivery notes and enable delivery item count
When announcing your delivery keep in mind:
Counting of delivered items is mandatory when announcing a delivery containing organic products. Please make sure to turn it on!
Correct delivery notes are a must for organic products arriving at the warehouse, only then we can inbound them correctly and legally compliant.
NOTE: In case there is no delivery note attached to the delivery, the warehouse will not accept it and thus will be sent back.
In preparation of the onboarding, we will ask you to send us a first delivery note that has to indicate
The sender address and their corresponding number of control authority (e.g DE-ÖKO-006). The sender can be your company, the producer or a third party. What we need to ensure at this point is, if the last stop in the supply chain has been verified as organic, too. We will ask for additional certificates if the sender is unfamiliar.
A list of delivered products, organic products being identifiable as organic (either by a remark, description or part of the product name).
Quantities of all organic products being delivered with appropriate lot and expiry date. It is important to proof correct amounts of organic products in case of irregularities. If quantity or batches and expiry dates on the delivery note differ from the goods delivered, we reserve the right to refuse acceptance of the goods.
Date and place.
Correct delivery notes will be signed and archived at the warehouse, as well as uploaded in the dashboard for you to access in case of an inspection.
Also, please make sure that organic products are visible on the packaging unit and the items themselves. E.g. in case a delivered box contains 6 items, the box should have a visible indicator such as the term “organic”, “bio” or the organic logo on there.This will help the warehouse to act accordingly and make the process much easier.
- Once your products are stored in the warehouse, you will be able to track all your organic products with LOT and expiry date in your dashboard.
- In case of new organic products, please make sure to follow the steps accordingly.
- If you want to send out delivery notes with your shipments to end customers or other distributors, please inform us accordingly, so we can make sure that this document is compliant as well.
Find some more information about organic basics and organic rules on the European Commission's website.