How to make a certified organic product in New Zealand
To make a certified organic product in New Zealand you need four things: a certifier, certified organic ingredients with current certificates, an organic percentage of at least 95% of agricultural weight if you want to call the product organic, and a label whose claims match that percentage. Certification takes three to twelve months, and your certifier must approve the product before it is sold.
Last updated: 28 September 2026 · Written by Fliss Roberts, ANZOC
What "certified organic" actually requires of a product
An organic claim in New Zealand is a claim about a process, not an ingredient list. It says that every step from farm to pack met an organic standard and that an independent certifier audited it. That is why you cannot make a certified organic product simply by buying organic ingredients: the place where they are blended, cooked, filled and packed has to be certified too.
Three separate rule sets apply at once, and they do different jobs. The Organic Products and Production Act 2023 and its regulations set who must be certified and by whom. The National Organic Standard sets what production and processing must look like. The Food Standards Code and the Fair Trading Act 1986 set everything else on the label — allergens, date marking, ingredient lists, and the rule that a claim must not mislead.
The seven steps, in order
Most of the cost and nearly all of the delay in this process comes from doing these out of order — typically designing the recipe first and discovering at step four that an ingredient nobody thought about has pushed the product under a threshold.
- Choose a certifier first, not last. Which certifier you use determines which markets you can sell into. Adding a market later usually means adding a certifier or an equivalence arrangement, and that is months of work. Compare the certifiers.
- Design the recipe around ingredients you can actually certify. An ingredient is only organic for your purposes if its supplier holds a current certificate that names it. What counts and what does not.
- Calculate the organic percentage. One formula, applied to agricultural ingredients only. The formula and the exclusions.
- Check what that percentage lets you claim. Can I call my product organic?
- Check every destination market separately. Where the same recipe passes and fails.
- Get the label approved before printing. What you may print, word by word.
- Build the records before the first audit, not the week before. Preparing for your first organic audit.
The three tiers, and what each one allows
Every organic labelling decision in New Zealand comes back to one number: the proportion of your agricultural ingredients, by weight, that is certified organic. Water and salt are excluded from both the top and the bottom of that calculation.
| Organic % | What you may call it | Certifier logo | Where it works |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100% | "100% Organic" | Permitted | All markets |
| 95–99% | "Organic" or "Certified Organic" in the product name | Permitted | All markets |
| 70–94% | "Made with organic [named ingredients]" | Not permitted on the front of pack | NZ and US. Not the EU — the EU has no equivalent tier |
| Below 70% | Organic ingredients named in the ingredient list only | Not permitted | All markets, as an ingredient-level statement only |
How long it takes and what it costs
For a processor using already-certified ingredients, certification of the site and the product typically runs three to six months from application to first certificate, and longer if your suppliers cannot produce clean documentation. Growing your own inputs is a different timeline entirely: land needs a conversion period before its output counts as organic.
Budget for the certifier fee, the audit, your own time assembling documentation, and — the cost that surprises people — reformulation when an ingredient turns out not to be certifiable at the volume you need. The cost and timeline in detail.
Where new products fail
- A compound ingredient nobody unpacked. A bought-in sauce or blend is not one ingredient; its sub-ingredients each count. How compound ingredients work.
- An additive that is not permitted. Being under 5% non-organic does not make a substance allowable — permitted and non-permitted are a separate test from the percentage. Additives and processing aids.
- A supplier certificate that expired mid-production run. The certificate has to be current on the date you take delivery, not the date you checked. Verifying supplier certificates.
- Artwork printed before certifier approval, usually with a logo at the wrong size or a claim one tier too high.
- A recipe change that nobody re-ran the numbers on. Swapping one ingredient for a conventional equivalent can move a product from 95.4% to 94.6% and invalidate every pack in the warehouse.
Every step in detail
- Can I call my product organic in New Zealand?
Work out in five questions whether you may call your product organic in New Zealand, use "made with organic", or name organic ingredients in the ingredient list only.
- What does "made with organic" mean on a New Zealand label?
The 70–94% tier explained: what "made with organic" permits on a New Zealand label, why the EU refuses the claim entirely, and the exact wording the US requires.
- Which ingredients count towards the organic percentage of a product?
Water, salt, additives and processing aids are excluded from organic percentage calculations. What that means in practice, with worked examples for a sauce, a beverage and a baked good.
- How do compound ingredients affect my organic percentage?
A bought-in sauce, blend or premix is not one ingredient. How to expand compound ingredients into sub-ingredients, apportion them by weight, and avoid the error that quietly costs a tier.
- What can go in the non-organic 5% of a certified organic product?
The 5% is not a free pass. What may occupy it, what may not, why "no organic alternative available" is a condition rather than an excuse, and how to evidence it.
- Is [additive] allowed in certified organic food?
Additives and processing aids sit outside the organic percentage but still have to be permitted. How to check a substance against NZ, EU and USDA lists, and what to record when you do.
- What wording am I allowed to use on the front of an organic pack in New Zealand?
Front-of-pack claims, product names, ingredient declarations and certifier statements: what is permitted at each organic tier, and the wording that gets packs rejected.
- Can I use the EU organic leaf or the USDA seal on my product?
The EU leaf, USDA seal, ACO Bud and New Zealand certifier marks: minimum sizes, colours, clear space, required adjacent text and who may use each one.
- Will a recipe that passes in New Zealand also pass in the EU?
The same organic percentage produces different labelling outcomes in New Zealand, Australia, the EU and the United States. The comparison table, and the three places recipes fail on export.
- How much does it cost and how long does it take to certify an organic product in New Zealand?
Realistic fees and timelines for certifying a New Zealand organic product: certifier costs by operation size, the stages between application and first certificate, and the costs people forget.
- Who can contract-manufacture certified organic food in New Zealand?
A certified organic product needs a certified site. How to find a contract manufacturer with the right certification scope, what to check before you commit, and what goes in the agreement.
Questions people ask
- Do I need to be certified to make an organic product?
- Yes, if you want to call it organic. Under the Organic Products and Production Act 2023 an organic claim requires certification by a recognised body, and even before the 2028 mandatory date the Fair Trading Act 1986 makes an unsubstantiated organic claim a misleading claim.
- Can I make an organic product using a contract manufacturer?
- Yes, but the contract manufacturer must itself hold organic certification covering the process they perform for you. An uncertified site cannot produce a certified organic product, however organic the ingredients are. Find certified contract manufacturers.
- How organic does a product have to be to be called organic?
- 95% of agricultural ingredients by weight, excluding water and salt. Between 70% and 94% the product may be described as "made with organic [ingredients]" in New Zealand and the United States, but not in the European Union. Below 70% organic ingredients can only be identified in the ingredient list.
- Does water count in the organic percentage?
- No. Water and salt are excluded from both the organic weight and the total agricultural weight. This matters most for beverages and sauces, where including water would dilute the percentage of every product on the market.
- What happens if my product drops below 95% after a supplier change?
- It stops being eligible for an organic product claim from the batch that used the substituted ingredient. In practice you either re-source, reformulate, or relabel to the tier the new figure supports. Packaging already printed for the higher tier cannot be used.
Sources
- Organic Products and Production Act 2023 — New Zealand Legislation
- Organic Products and Production Regulations 2025 — New Zealand Legislation
- Organic Standards Regulations 2025 — New Zealand Legislation
- MPI — Organic product requirements in NZ
- Fair Trading Act 1986 — New Zealand Legislation
This page is general guidance, not certification advice. Your certifier's decision is the one that counts — check anything that changes what goes on a label with them before you print.