July 18, 2013

Water cannot be organic according to standards stating that it cannot be. Organic, when used to refer to food and drink, refers to the farming practices of agricultrural products and as water is not an agricultural product it can not be described as organic.

As a result there have been a number of brand name changes recently due to an Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) directive for water companies to remove ‘organic’ claims from their labeling and branding. The ACCC rejected a number of claims from manufacturers claiming the word ‘organic’ was not a representation but part of their brand name.

“Organic standards acknowledge that water cannot be organic. Any claim that particular water is organic would therefore be misleading or deceptive, and manufacturers cannot hide misleading claims in their brand name,” Delia Rickard, ACCC Deputy Chair said.

The manufacturers identified have already begun supplying bottles with amended labels. The ACCC said it expects that organic claims will soon have largely disappeared from the labels of bottled water at retail outlets.

The ACCC has called on consumers who see brands of bottled water featuring organic claims to contact the ACCC and retailers who still have stock should contact their distributors. The ACCC  will continue to monitor the progress of the changes and will “engage further with retailers and manufacturers if further work needs to be undertaken”.

Read the full article at ACCC

Picture courtesy of the ACCC