Allowance of Non-Certified Organic Molasses in Crop Fertilizers

Is non-certified organic molasses permitted in crop fertilizers? What about molasses derivatives, such as vinasse?

By Tessa Barker

Let’s say you are a fertilizer manufacturer, looking for ingredients for a blended fertilizer marketed to Canadian organic crop producers. Thinking it will probably be allowed; you select a molasses product that is already listed by OMRI under the USDA National Organic Program (NOP) standards to use as an ingredient. Surprisingly, your proposed product gets prohibited by the OMRI Canada Review Panel. Why did this happen? In order to understand this, we need to dive into the details of the Canada Organic Regime (COR) standards to see what they say about molasses and molasses derivatives.

Any ingredient used in a crop production input under COR must be included on the Permitted Substances List (PSL) Table 4.2. The PSL Table 4.2, Molasses entry states “Shall be organic.” This could be interpreted two different ways: 1) only molasses certified at the time of application to the soil is allowed; or 2) molasses that is verified as certified can be used as an ingredient in a crop production input product, which itself is unlikely to be certified. OMRI policy aligns with this second option, that under COR, if molasses is certified organic when it is added to a crop fertilizer or soil amendment, it is allowed. In contrast, under the National Organic Program (NOP) standards, molasses does not have to be certified organic when used in a crop fertilizer or soil amendment. This difference between COR and NOP standards can cause confusion with certifiers and OMRI applicants alike.

There is an additional layer of detail under the COR standards, molasses fertilizer ingredients must be certified specifically under COR as organic. Even if a molasses ingredient is certified organic under NOP standards, this is still not sufficient to meet the COR standards outlined in PSL Table 4.2, Molasses. The molasses product must be certified as organic under COR or have verifiable COR equivalency.

Additionally, OMRI listing is not equivalent to organic certification whether a product is reviewed to the NOP or COR standards. Organic certification is reserved for outputs—agricultural products intended for human or livestock consumption. This contrasts with OMRI listing, which is reserved for inputs—substances used in the production of crops or livestock, or the processing of agricultural products. Molasses is an unusual material that happens to fall into both categories. It can be used and listed by OMRI as an input. It can also be certified organic for human or livestock consumption.

The story for vinasse, a fermentation derivative of molasses, is more complicated. We review this material to the requirements of PSL Table 4.2 entry, Stillage and stillage extract, which does not stipulate organic status for the starting molasses. However, this is also where COR-specific policies regarding fermentation come into play. If the vinasse fermentation process is complete (i.e., the molasses growth media is entirely consumed), or if all remaining molasses is removed, then the molasses is not required to be certified organic. The same applies for microbial growth media within COR: nonorganic molasses is permitted for use as microbial growth media, so long as it is fully consumed or removed from the final microbial ingredient. If any of the initial molasses used to create the vinasse remains, it must be reviewed to the PSL Table 4.2, Molasses entry and be certified organic under COR, or have verifiable COR equivalency.

This article was originally published in the winter 2024 edition of the OMRI Materials Review newsletter, and was revised in March 2025 by Technical Research Analyst Colleen Al-Samarrie.