The Soil Association announced that “following an extensive review” it has made the decision to withdraw its logo from organic farmed salmon.

The Association said: “Our review, which heard from producers, aquaculture experts, scientists, policymakers, animal welfare experts and campaigners, found that while our standards have helped drive improvements across the sector over the last 20 years, there is insufficient evidence that they are delivering welfare and environmental outcomes consistent with the high bar consumers expect when they see our logo.

“Whilst our review showed improvement was possible, this was not achievable quickly enough.

“This decision reflects our commitment to acting on the evidence and maintaining trust in the Soil Association symbol.”

The Soil Association said that for more than two decades, it has developed and set strict standards for organic salmon, “raising the bar” for farmed fish. But it said “increasing environmental and welfare concerns” led it to review its involvement in the sector.

It said the review “established that there was a lack of evidence that Soil Association standards were delivering good enough outcomes for organic farmed salmon, and a lack of confidence this could change fast enough.”

The Soil Association said: “Our review concluded that, although a better future for organic farmed salmon could be possible, we were not sufficiently confident that these challenges could be resolved through changes to our standards within a suitable timeframe.

“This is especially due to environmental pressures such as rising sea temperatures leading to challenges that are often outside the control of producers.

“This has led to the difficult decision to withdraw from setting standards for organic salmon. We are grateful to the industry and everyone who has worked with us during the review, which has been a significant commitment of time and effort to explore all of the possible solutions to the challenges we identified.

“Over the coming weeks and months, we will be working with the sector to arrange a suitable timeframe for this decision to be implemented.”