Geetie Singh founded The Duke of Cambridge organic gastropub in North London in 1998. To this day, it remains the only UK gastro pub with Soil Association certification. She examines why so few other British restaurants have been certified in the same way.

Over the last ten years, sales of organic produce have taken off beyond all expectations. The retail sales alone have outstripped Mintel’s predications year after year. So why are there so few restaurants out there who are willing to get organic certification?

It is largely to do with the EU's inconsistent stance on the catering industry. Most bizarrely, it does not regard catering in the same way that it regards organics, and the same rules do not apply. For example: if a restaurant says it sells 'organic' chicken pies, it is perfectly legal for the pie to contain non-organic ingredients, even if the chicken itself is organic. This is not a truly organic chicken pie that the restaurant is selling, which is misleading the customers. And since Trading Standards don't have the time to scrutinise this on the level that is needed, this is very rarely policed.

However, the EU rules regarding organic produce are incredibly strict: if you are an organic food producer, you must prove that the ingredients you are using are organically certified (and you must be certified yourself to be able to make a claim about the organic ingredients in your product). An organic fruit yoghurt for example, cannot be made from non-organic strawberries and organic yoghurt. This means that all organic food producers have to prove full traceability and accountability for every single one of their ingredients.

The EU has decided that it is legitimate for restaurants to say and use what they wish, sometimes glossing over the finer points of the origin of their produce. The most common disclaimer you see on restaurant menus is ‘organic wherever possible’. Possible within what boundaries? Reading between the lines, this means what is available from the restaurant supplier, what the restaurant can afford, and what it can be bothered to think about in terms of ethics and sustainability. So putting a disclaimer saying 'organic wherever possible' is totally meaningless and is absolutely misleading the customer.

When people shop for their groceries, they choose organic because they are concerned with their health, animal welfare and the state of the environment. However, when people go out for dinner, they regard it as a fun treat. The last thing they want to be concerned with is the fact that the pork might have come from some industrial pork plant, raised and transported in tortuous conditions and slaughtered in an inhumane fashion. People assume that when they are paying top dollar for a chicken dish in a reputable restaurant that they are being served quality chicken, not cheap meat from a battery farm. And it's certainly not something one wants to think about as they're trying to choose a dish.

How could we ever eat out anywhere with these thoughts in our minds? Nor do we want to turn into a total food bores, questioning the origin of every ingredient on the menu, which would put a dampener on the whole evening. Even if we do ask about the provenance of the ingredients and don't like what we hear, it's unlikely that we would walk out of the restaurant. So most people don't bother asking – it's easier to hope for the best (or we prefer not to think about it) and tell ourselves that it's a special event, or that we'll go to the farmers' market at the weekend to make up for it. As a result, restaurants can continue to get away with selling poor quality ingredients. In the case of meat, most of it is reared in dreadful conditions.

We all need to be aware that unless a restaurant is making a special effort to tell you about the provenance of its meat, then it is more than likely that you are being served undesirable meat that you wouldn’t choose for yourself in the supermarket. You can be certain that the restaurant would tell you if it was well sourced - firstly because the meat would cost more and it would need you to understand why the dish is more expensive, and secondly because the restaurant would want to publicise the fact that it buys its meat from a good source, as this is very positive marketing.

This means, in theory, that increasing numbers of restaurants would use organic meat and other ingredients because they get good marketing and publicity from doing so. But none of them have to be certified organic in order to use organic ingredients. If this became compulsory there would certainly be more organic certified restaurants out there – but at the moment, there is virtually no incentive for any restaurant to become fully certified. Many restaurant owners regard organic certification as a challenge or hassle that they can do without.

The Duke of Cambridge has been certified as an organic gastropub for 10 years now – many restaurateurs think that we went through hell and high water to achieve this, but it really hasn't been that difficult. Certification systems are easy to manage, suppliers are plentiful and the produce is affordable. We take enormous pride in working closely with organic farms that are benefiting the wildlife and the environment. It is wonderful to know we are not endorsing the oil industry though fertiliser use, that the animals we buy have been treated with respect and that they are not pumped full of hormones. Sourcing produce that is seasonal and local to London is easy, fascinating, challenging and a completely positive experience.

I can see absolutely no reason why there shouldn’t be more certified organic restaurants. Getting certification means you don’t have to ask the questions as there is a certification body monitoring everything and doing all the hard work for you. If the EU continues to ignore the double standards that occur in the catering industry, the great name of ‘organic’ will be irrevocably damaged. This would be a terrible waste of all the hard work undertaken by pioneers of the organic movement. Their meticulous work, not to mention their foresight and passion, have brought us quality food you can trust in a era where our food system has been abused for so many years and there is so much confusion surrounding traceability. I urge other restaurants to rise to the organic challenge!