Organic Salmon Certification Faces Transparency Challenge After Tribunal Ruling
In a significant development for the UK's organic food sector, the Soil Association has been compelled to disclose its salmon farm inspection reports following a decisive information tribunal ruling. This legal outcome represents a victory for campaigners who have long argued that certifying farmed salmon as "organic" potentially misleads consumers about the true environmental and welfare standards involved in production.
Campaigners Secure Access to Inspection Documentation
The tribunal's decision came after a two-day hearing and concludes an eighteen-month battle for transparency initiated by the environmental campaign group WildFish. The organisation first requested access to the inspection reports under environmental information regulations in May 2024, seeking to examine the basis upon which salmon farms receive organic certification.
WildFish has consistently maintained that labelling farmed salmon as organic constitutes what they describe as "unacceptable greenwashing." A spokesperson for the campaign group emphasised the importance of this disclosure, stating: "Inspection reports go to the heart of whether organic certification of salmon farming is credible at all. The fact that their disclosure was resisted, and had to be tested all the way to tribunal, only reinforces why independent scrutiny is essential."
Controversial Practices Within Certified Operations
Critics of the current certification standards highlight several concerning practices permitted under the Soil Association's Aquaculture Standard. These include the use of chemical treatments and pesticides known to be toxic to marine life, alongside methods that campaigners argue are damaging to both the environment and the welfare of farmed fish.
WildFish's research has documented specific instances where organic-certified salmon farms have employed chemical pesticides such as Deltamethrin, which is used to combat sea lice but is also highly toxic to lobsters and other marine invertebrates. Their 2023 report detailed one farm receiving this treatment twice within a twelve-month period. The same investigation recorded the use of formaldehyde, a recognised human carcinogen, on multiple occasions to treat fungal infections in fish at certified organic facilities.
The campaign group further argues that the production methods for certified "organic" salmon remain remarkably similar to those of uncertified farms. Both typically involve rearing fish in open-net cages, with waste products and chemical treatments being discharged directly into the surrounding marine environment.
Legal Arguments and Sector Implications
Soil Association Certification initially contested the disclosure request, arguing that as a non-public body, any legal obligations for information sharing rested with its delegating authority, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). The organisation appealed against the Information Commissioner's Office's initial decision but saw this appeal dismissed by the independent first-tier tribunal.
Dominic Robinson, Chief Executive of Soil Association Certification, clarified the organisation's position: "It is the right reporting channels for the information, not the reporting of the information itself, that is in question and that we seek to ensure is clearly set out." He emphasised that the association had not sought to withhold information but was contracted to provide it to Defra, which would then determine appropriate disclosure.
This ruling could establish an important precedent with wider implications for other control bodies operating within the organic food production sector, potentially increasing transparency requirements across the industry.
Future Standards and Industry Response
In response to mounting criticism, the Soil Association has initiated a public consultation aimed at tightening its standards for organic salmon certification. This move follows last year's warning from the organisation that it might withdraw from the sector entirely unless significant progress was made on environmental and welfare issues by summer this year.
The Soil Association's Organic scheme, established as the UK's oldest and most widely recognised organic certification, defines organic farming as "using methods that benefit our whole food system, from people to planet, plant health to animal welfare." This recent tribunal decision and the subsequent consultation process indicate a period of significant reassessment for how these principles are applied within the aquaculture sector, particularly concerning salmon farming operations off locations such as the Western Isles of Scotland.
