Organic food, inorganic packaging

We support organic food. In the UK, the Soil Association does tremendous work setting and maintaining standards for organic produce. Since January this year, they are also inspecting against new packaging standards. Producers of organic food should:

• minimise the amount of material used
• maximise the amount of material that can be reused or recycled
• use materials with recycled content where possible

Minimising the amount of material used in packaging is a topic close to our hearts. We imagine that most consumers of organic food are concerned about the environment, too. We visited some supermarkets to see how they packaged their organic products.

Here are some Co-op organic apples with the Soil Association logo. They've come all the way from Argentina to be placed in a cardboard tray and enclosed in a plastic bag. Good to see that the tray is made of recyclable cardboard, but is it really necessary at all?


These Marks and Spencer organic avocados are imported from Spain, which is relatively local by comparison. Unfortunately they've been put in a moulded plastic tray and wrapped in cellophane.


This Soil Association-certified organic babycorn has travelled all the way from Thailand by air to reach Tesco. The plastic tray they're sitting in is green, giving the impression of environmental wholesomeness.


Apparently the Soil Association packaging standards should be fully implemented from January 2008. We look forward to seeing less unnecessary packaging of organic produce by then.

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