# How compound ingredients change your organic percentage

> A compound ingredient must be expanded into its sub-ingredients and each one counted separately, apportioned by its percentage of the compound. Treating a bought-in blend as a single organic or conventional line is the most common source of wrong organic percentages, and it can move a product a full tier in either direction.

Source: https://anzoc.co.nz/resources/compound-ingredients-organic-percentage
Published: 2026-09-28 · Last updated: 2026-09-28 · Author: Fliss Roberts, ANZOC

---

## Why one line becomes five

Buying a ready-made tomato base, spice blend or bakery premix means buying a recipe inside your recipe. The organic percentage rules do not care where the line on the batch sheet came from — they care about the agricultural ingredients actually present in the finished product. So a compound ingredient is expanded and its parts counted individually.

This cuts both ways. An 80% organic premix recorded as "conventional" understates your percentage and can cost you a tier you had earned. A "certified organic" premix that turns out to contain conventional sub-ingredients overstates it, which is the more dangerous direction.

## A worked example

A pasta sauce uses 200 g of a bought-in tomato base that is, by the supplier's own composition sheet, 70% organic tomatoes, 20% water, 8% organic onion and 2% conventional starch.

*Expanding 200 g of compound tomato base*

| Sub-ingredient | % of compound | As-added weight | Counts as |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Organic tomatoes | 70% | 140 g | Organic agricultural |
| Water | 20% | 40 g | Excluded |
| Organic onion | 8% | 16 g | Organic agricultural |
| Conventional starch | 2% | 4 g | Non-organic agricultural |

The compound contributes 156 g of organic agricultural weight and 160 g of total agricultural weight — not 200 g of either. Recorded as a single organic line it would have added 200 g to both, overstating the product.

## What to ask the supplier for

1. **Full composition by percentage**, covering every sub-ingredient including water, salt, carriers and processing aids.
2. **The organic status of each sub-ingredient**, not just of the blend as a whole.
3. **A current certificate naming the compound product**, with scope and expiry date.
4. **Notice of reformulation.** Ask in writing to be told when composition changes. Suppliers reformulate without telling customers, and it is your percentage that moves.

> **If the supplier will not give you the breakdown** — You cannot calculate a defensible percentage without it, and an auditor will ask how you arrived at your figure. A supplier who refuses composition data is a sourcing problem, not a paperwork problem.

## Compounds inside compounds

Sub-ingredients can themselves be compound. A spice blend inside a marinade inside your product is three levels deep, and each level needs the same expansion. Work from the innermost outwards, and keep the working — the calculation is only as auditable as the trail behind it.

ANZOC's recipe tool does this expansion automatically for any ingredient recorded as compound, apportioning each sub-ingredient by its percentage of its parent at any depth.

## How to handle a compound ingredient in an organic percentage calculation

1. **Get the full sub-ingredient breakdown.** Ask the supplier for the composition by percentage, not the ingredient declaration. You need the numbers, not the order.
2. **Get a certificate that covers the compound.** The supplier's certificate must name the product you are buying, with its scope and expiry.
3. **Multiply through.** Multiply each sub-ingredient percentage by the weight of the compound in your recipe to get its as-added weight.
4. **Classify each sub-ingredient.** Agricultural or not, organic or not, water or salt. The same exclusions apply at this level.
5. **Add the expanded lines into your main calculation.** Remove the compound line and replace it with its parts, then recalculate.

## Questions people ask

**What is a compound ingredient?**

An ingredient that is itself made of several ingredients — a bought-in sauce, premix, blend, marinade or concentrate. For organic percentage purposes it is expanded into its sub-ingredients rather than counted as one line.

**Can I treat a certified organic compound ingredient as 100% organic?**

Only if the certificate and composition confirm that every agricultural sub-ingredient is organic. A compound can be certified and still contain permitted non-organic sub-ingredients, which is why the breakdown matters.

**How deep do I have to go?**

All the way down. If a sub-ingredient is itself compound, it is expanded too. The calculation is based on the agricultural ingredients actually present, however many purchase orders away they were assembled.

**What if the supplier reformulates?**

Your percentage changes from the batch that used the new formulation. Ask suppliers in writing to notify you of composition changes, and re-run the calculation each time one arrives.

## Sources

- [USDA NOP — Calculating percentage organic in multi-ingredient products](https://www.ams.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media/NOP%20CACC%20Final%20Rec%20Calculating%20Percentage.pdf)
- [Regulation (EU) 2018/848 on organic production and labelling](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2018/848/oj)
- [Organic Standards Regulations 2025 — New Zealand Legislation](https://www.legislation.govt.nz/secondary-legislation/pco-drafted/2025/197/en/latest/)

## Related

- [Which ingredients count towards your organic percentage](https://anzoc.co.nz/resources/organic-ingredient-rules-what-counts)
- [Compound ingredients under the National Organic Standard](https://anzoc.co.nz/blog/compound-ingredients-national-organic-standard)
- [Verify a supplier certificate](https://anzoc.co.nz/resources/verify-organic-suppliers)

This page is general guidance, not certification advice. Your certifier makes the final decision.