Consumers demand one organic symbol

www.hospitalitymagazine.com.au

More than 70 per cent of organic food buyers say they would prefer to have one, new certification symbol used by all organisations, compared with only 14 per cent who prefer to continue with different certification symbols.

The research conducted by Newspoll found that changing to one, new certification symbol is generally viewed as easier, clearer and less confusing. Having one symbol is also viewed as being easier to recognise and remember, and as having a clearer and stronger meaning.

Some also saw it as providing confirmation of uniformity in certification procedures by certification organisations.

The Newspoll was commissioned by the Organic Federation of Australia, the peak body for the organic sector and was conducted nationally among main grocery buyers.

Regular organic food buyers were asked to rate the current system of having eight different certification symbols on a scale from 0 to 10, where 0 is “very confusing and hard to identify organic foods” and 10 is “very clear and simple to identify organic foods”.

Their average rating was only 3.1 out of 10. "The research showed very poor awareness of most of the certification symbols and that the words “Certified Organic” were important in guiding consumer awareness about genuine organic products, said Andre Leu, chair of the Organic Federation.

"The experience from around the world shows that having one symbol to identify organic products generates a huge increase in sales.

The survey was conducted among 966 main grocery buyers nationally aged 18 years and over.