Celebrating National Organic Month

Certified Organic: What Does It Actually Mean & What To Look For

Taste the Difference, Feel the Difference, Make the Difference.

Don’t panic, it’s organic! September is a month to celebrate all things organic.

“As consumers, you want food you can recognise and trust. Buying organic products supports food safety, health, good nutrition and the environment. Products that carry the logo of an accredited organic certification body are guaranteed to be genuine organic.” Costa Georgiadis, Ambassador of National Organic Week.

What Does Certified Organic Mean?

The Australian Certified Organic (ACO) logo is the only way that you can verify that the product and all the processes from growing to roasting are genuinely certified and traceable to national and international organic standards.

To be ACO accredited, the beans must be grown under specific conditions without the use of any chemical fertilisers, pesticides, herbicides and fumigation. Farmers must be growing under these requirements for 3 years before certification and be tested annually.

The ACO demands that not only no chemicals are used in the entire supply chain but also during the roasting and handling processes. The beans then all need to be stored, roasted, packaged according to the ACO standards and regulations. Each processor receives a unique processing number as part of their certification. This is your guarantee that the product is certified and not just a claim that may only be partially true. There are very real differences between claims of ‘organic’ and ‘certified organic’.

Why Should I Care?

For us at Bun Coffee, despite the additional requirements, paperwork and cost involved in ensuring our facility and processes are certified to the correct standard, it’s a natural choice. A case of ‘why wouldn’t you’?

There are many reasons we choose organic such as taste, quality, transparency of product and doing our bit to support the livelihood and longevity of the farming communities and environment of the producers.

To this end, we also go one step further and source Fair Trade beans where possible.

So next time a product is said to be organic, make sure to look out for the Certified Organic logo to verify that every part of the process is organic and not just one aspect of the product. Our ACO Processor Number is 10715P.