Make the Organic Food Label permanent and come to terms with the goals

17. September 2025

The government wants the Danish population to follow the dietary guidelines. It wants to reduce food waste and double both the organic area and organic sales. There are many agendas that need to be addressed at the same time.

Fortunately, there is the Organic Food Label that can help achieve the goals. The government knows that. It has set aside money for the Organic Food Label in 2026, and that should be commended. But what happens after that? Hopefully, the Organic Food Label will also be prioritized in the Finance Acts that follow. Yet, many of us actors within the entire food value chain are questioning the situation. Why has the sustainable financing of the food label not been secured in the Finance Act proposal? Often, people know the challenge, but are looking for a solution. Here, we and the government know the challenge and have a tool whose effect is known.

All experience shows that in addition to the label motivating kitchen managers to include organic food on the menu, plants are given higher priority when kitchens receive the Organic Food Label, and food waste is reduced.

This is the way they can often get organic on the table within the same budget. It is good for the climate, drinking water, the aquatic environment, biodiversity, nature, animal welfare and for ourselves, who get food without the risk of pesticide residues. At the same time, the low consumption of medicine in organic farming supports an approach where one works to strengthen the health of both humans and animals in what is called a “one health” perspective. We've said it before, but we'll say it again. It takes preparation and investment to make your kitchen organic. Suppliers must be found, menus must be changed to be more plant-rich, new workflows must be introduced, and investments must be made in systems to document organic. Kitchens will only get started if they know the label will exist for many years to come.

Therefore, our call is clear.

Now remove the recurring uncertainty you created when you, for the first time since the brand's birth in 2009, removed the funds in 2023 and had to make an emergency rescue maneuver before everyone went on Christmas vacation to ensure its existence. You have just relaunched the Danish map of restaurants with the Organic Restaurant Label, so perhaps you cannot imagine yourself discontinuing a brand that is so popular.

A label that has proven its worth and has been copied by several other EU countries after they visited Denmark to learn how we have become organic world champions. If that is the case, we might as well settle it once and for all and give it a permanent place on par with the state-controlled red island.

This opinion piece was published in Børsen on September 27, 2025, and was written by:

Kirsten Lund Jensen, head of ecology, Agriculture & Fødever, Michael Allerup, vice chairman and spokesperson, sustainability, Diet and Nutrition Association, Saoirse McKeever Andersen, specialist manager, food, Danish Business, Jakob Scharff, industry director, DI Service, Karsten Felvang, director, F&B, Anne-Sofie Hattesen, ESG manager, Compass Group, Pernille Hougaard, marketing manager, Dagrofa Foodservice, Vivi Kjersgaard, sustainability and concept goods manager, Hørkram, Jan Kristensen, development manager, Dansk Cater, Tine Skriver, food manager, Horesta, Morten Enni Hassing Schlichtkrull, Head of Food Product & Performance – Operations Performance, ISS Facility Services A/S, Peter Rønn-Petersen, director, Meyers Madhus, Jakob Zeuthen, climate and food policy manager, Danish Restaurants and Cafes, Ronny Saul, Jespers Torvekøkken, Anne Mette Knudsen, division director, Food by Coor, Mona Carøe Jensen, chief economist, Patient kitchen, canteen and nutrition clinic, Regional Hospital Randers, chairperson, kitchen committee, Organic National Association, Birte Brorson, consulting for professional kitchens in sustainable operation, Øko++, Rune-Christoffer Dragsdahl, secretary general, Danish Vegetarian Association, Trine Langhede, advisor, bioresources and food, Green Transition Denmark