Organico has become the first UK brand to undergo a Planet-score assessment, with all its products achieving a triple A score – the highest possible.
Planet-score is a product sustainability labelling scheme developed in France, but now being taken up across Europe. It has the backing of leading organic and agroecological groups – including in the UK – because of its ‘planet boundaries’ approach to measuring environmental impact.
The Planet-score label is designed to be easily understood by consumers and features an overall Planet-score, an A-E grading of performance on Pesticides, Biodiversity and Climate impacts and a separate animal welfare score, on relevant products. All this information is conveyed in one compact on-pack label (in 2.5cm and 1.4cm versions).
Organic Realfoods founder, Charles Redfern says the Planet-score scheme offers an effective way to combat greenwashing in the food industry.
The organic sector has warned that some other food eco-labelling schemes, contain serious ‘blind spots’ – ignoring impacts on biodiversity and pesticide use, for example – meaning that their scoring system often favours intensive farming and penalises organic.
Organico is a pioneer sustainable food company that sources from small artisan producers, family farms and co-operatives with a focus on both the joy of delicious provenance foods and addressing key ethical and environmental priorities. Organico works with pioneer organic farms and producers helping them deal with the complexities of the grocery market, so they can focus on doing good on the land. The company’s Better than Net policy is an exemplary template for an honest but also ambitious approach to the tricky challenge of addressing the issue of a business’s carbon footprint. Organico Realfoods is also close to obtaining B Corp certification. Products in the Organico brand include pasta, sauces, rice, breadsticks, oils, vinegars and a simple but versatile soya-based meat replacement.