The last thing anyone wants to do is pull their product off the shelves due to a labeling issue, but that’s exactly what would happen if you got caught in the market with a non-compliant label design. To make sure this never happens to you, follow these easy guidelines and make sure you always get your label approved, in writing, by your organic certifier prior to printing. The main rules you need to consider with your label design are the following:

The USDA has three categories of certified organic food products:

1. "100% Organic" (self explanatory)

2. "Organic" (95% or higher organic ingredients)

3. "Made with Organic..." (75% and higher).

The first thing you need to do is calculate your product's organic content by weight (water and salt don't count), breaking out organic content in all ingredients (ex. cocoa powder is more than just cocoa), and then figure out which category you fall into based on the above percentages.

USDA Logo / Seal

This logo must be used in the official green & brown colors, or as a one-color black version. No exceptions. In addition it must always be displayed more prominently than the certifier's seal/logo. However, it is not required that this logo be used at all.

Get Approval

As I said above, it is always best to get approval before you print your packaging. It's better to take a little extra time to make sure you're label is correct than to pull your products off the shelf and reprint your labels.

Organic Percentage Claims

For products that are 95% or higher, you can make a percentage of organic claim — such as "98% Organic Ingredients". The rules here are similar. The type must be no larger than 1/2 the size of the largest type on that panel (including any logos), and you're not allowed to highlight any part of the statement (bold, italic, type size, color, etc).

"Made With" Claims

If you fall into the 75% or higher category (and below 95% obviously), then you do have the right to make a "Made with Organic..." statement — such as "Made with Organic Wheat". The main rules here are that the type must be no larger than 1/2 the size of the largest type on that panel (including any logos), and you're not allowed to highlight any part of the statement (bold, italic, type size, color, etc). The message must therefore be uniform, and can only mention 3 ingredients (Made with Organic Wheat, Honey, and Sugar), or three food groups (... vegetables, fruit, and grains).

Identifying Organic Ingredients

You have two options for identifying the organic ingredients in your product. The first is to spell out "organic" before each organic ingredient. The second is the space saver option and allows you to replace the word "organic" in front of each organic ingredient with an asterisk (*). Then at the end of the list you identify the asterisk by writing "*organic".

Organic Certifier

You do not need to use the organic certifier's logo/seal (if you do, check with them on their usage rules for colors), but you do have to print the certifier's name on the information panel (ingredients, etc) below the name of the final product handler (in most cases this is your company). Again, make sure it is below the final handler's name, not above, not to the side, not on a separate panel.

Further Reading / Sources:

1: Paper & Recycling 

2: Cotton and the Environment, by the Organic Trade Association

Around 90% of the pulp used to make paper currently comes from trees. And these trees take about 10-20 years to grow big enough to be harvested. Luckily, organizations like the Forest Stewardship Council are helping to making this industry more sustainable as a whole, but we still have to face the fact that trees are really only somewhat renewable. So why can’t paper companies use some other source of fiber for their paper? Something that grows faster and doesn’t cut down forests maybe?

How about Cotton? It seems to be second most common paper fiber, it grows much faster, and happens to make some really touchy-feely, sexy paper. But is it more sustainable? Unfortunately not. Cotton is considered the world's 'dirtiest' crop because of the heavy use of insecticides in the growing process. In fact, they use an insecticide that could kill a man with one drop if absorbed through the skin (source 2 below). That's scary, and a great reason to buy more Organic cotton. But I digress.

So what else can we use? Good question, and luckily Eric Benson of Re-Nourish fame received some grants to find out the answer to just that question. Enter Fresh Press, an agri-fiber lab founded by Eric and hosted at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he teaches. With the help of volunteer students Fresh Press is building an impressive paper-making laboratory where they experiment with various agricultural waste fibers to see what could be made into a commercially viable paper product. Brilliant! Take an abundant waste product and make it useful.

They currently have three paper lines, Double Cooked Soy Brown, Northwinds Switchgrass Blonde, and Unleashed Mutt – a blend of fiber sources (love the beer-themed names). Unfortunately, they don't have any of the paper for sale yet (I keep asking), but I'm crossing my fingers hoping they'll get something ready soon. You can, however, buy some t-shirts and posters through their Felt & Wire Shop store (typical designers).

Even with the progress being made, it will most likely be many years (or decades) until the big paper mills take up the cause. But the best way to get them on board is to be informed, vote with your dollars by specifying alternative fibers when possible, and support the actions of scrappy start-ups like Fresh Press. Until then, make sure you're using recycled and/or FSC Certified paper whenever possible. It's the best way to know future generations will actually know what a forest looks like.

Eco-Friendly Printing

Though there are many more sophisticated ways to reduce the impact of your printed piece, here’s a quick list of big-bang-for-your-buck solutions for those quick projects.

1. Does it really need to be printed?

   If there's a way around hitting the print button, use it. If it does need printing, try to eliminate information that will date the printed piece (think special offers that expire, prices that are subject to change, etc). By doing this you can print a higher quantity now, saving you a lot of money per piece, and you won’t have to reprint it as often. If it doesn’t NEED to be printed try a downloadable PDF, an e-mail campaign, or why not put the information on your website? This costs electricity sure, but it saves paper, water, ink, metal, and the power used to run the printing press.

2. Ask your designer to specify tree-free fibers if possible (cotton, hemp, agrifiber, etc are all more renewable than trees).

   Or switch to a minimum of 30% Post-Consumer recycled if you do need to use wood-based paper. Post-Consumer is paper that has gone out into the market and made it all the way back into the cycle again. We should reward that brave paper by giving it a new life.

3. What about all those awesome finishing techniques (embossing, spot varnishes, gold foil stamping, etc)?

   Ask yourself if it’s absolutely necessary or just an extra piece of flair. By cutting these processes down to a minimum, you save money, materials, and keep toxic chemicals out of the waste stream. If you feel the urge to splurge, try to at least avoid the processes that add extra chemicals (varnishes, coated paper, etc) or potentially toxic metals (metallic inks, foil stamping, etc). Stick with embossing, engraving, and interesting die-cuts.

4. Ask your designer to optimize the press sheet when determining the size of your package, brochure, or business cards.

   With proper planning, you can use up every inch of paper that you purchased, avoiding waste, and you might get more total pieces out of it as well. Sometimes this means you’ll need to give up your bleeds (printing that runs beyond the trim edge of the paper), but with some creativity, the piece will still look great.

5. Print near the delivery point.

   Does your printed piece need to travel? Are all your flyers heading to an event three states away? Is your package being shipped to a fulfillment center? Think about the ultimate destination of the piece and try to source your printing, paper, or anything else, as close to that location as possible. This will save you money and the extra footprint of shipping.