Organic Certification

What is Organic Certification

Organic Certification is the procedure for verifying that the products conform to certain standards. In case of Organic Products, it is primarily the acknowledgment that the products have been produced according to the applicable Organic Standards. Basically all the major organic markets of the world like India, European Union, USA, and Japan have developed their own Organic Standards.

• Lab test report for all the items we sale for % of organic content is to be made available.
• A food labeled 100% Organic means that 100% of the substances, ingredients, processing aids, food additives are certified organic. Most often these foods are fresh certified organic fruits and vegetables, or products with very few ingredients (all of which are certified organic.)
• Organic means that 95-100% of the ingredients are organic. All Horizon Organic products are labeled this way.
• Only food items with either of the above terms can use the ORGANIC seal. Food labeled Made with Organic Ingredients contain 70-94% organic ingredients, and cannot use the ORGANIC seal

Benefit of Organic Certification?

• Organic certification helps in building trust between consumers and Organic farmers.
• The certification mark 'Organic' is the only means to differentiate between certified Organic and conventional foods.
• Labels and certification marks help a consumer to recognize trust worthy Organic products easily.
• Organic certification and the logo are important marketing tools.
• Organic certification helps in getting comparatively a better price.

How to get Organic Certification

Farming

• Improving the quality of the soil is the basis for organic.
• The farm’s soil must be free of prohibited substances for a minimum of three years prior to harvesting crops that will be labelled as organic.
• The National Organic Program (NOP) encourages farmers to improve soil fertility and rotate crops to naturally increase crop yields and disease resistance.

Harvesting

• Organic crops are picked, cut, and cleaned in the field.
• To ensure organic integrity, certifying these operations is necessary.
• Equipment used for harvesting and processing must be cleaned and sanitized in accordance with NOP requirements.

Packaging

• Packaging may occur in the field, at a facility or where a product is cleaned, canned or bagged, and given a product label, name or an identification number such as a UPC code.
• Organic products are verified to make sure organic integrity has been maintained through the packaging process.

Processing

• Organic crops can be processed further with other organic crops or spices.
• To ensure the organic integrity of a product has been maintained, a USDA-accredited certifying agent, such as CERTIFICATION BODY, must inspect these operations to ensure that they are operating according to the NOP and certify their compliance.

Labeling

• Labeling is a very important and complex part of the NOP.
• How agricultural products have been handled, processed, and combined with other ingredients determines how it can be labeled organic.
• 100% Organic = 100% organic ingredients and processing aids
• Organic = At least 95% organically produced ingredients, with the remaining % from the National List of allowed ingredients
• Made with Organic Ingredients = Minimum of 70% organic content with the remaining % of allowed ingredients

Shipping

• Products are shipped to distributors or to retail stores.
• To ensure the continued organic integrity, products must be protected from contamination by non-organic products.
• Prior to loading and unloading, trucks are verified for shipping practices that maintain this integrity, such as the prevention of commingling of organic and nonorganic products and impermeable packaging.

Distribution

• Products are compiled from farms, processors, or other distributors to one central location in order to distribute products.
• If organic product is repackaged, perhaps to smaller sizes, CERTIFICATION BODY would confirm that organic integrity has been maintained.

Transportation

• Similar to shipping, special accommodations must be in place to protect organic products from contamination. Retail
• Consumers can look for the USDA’s organic seal and a certifier’s mark, such as CERTIFICATION BODY’s mark, to ensure that each step in the entire organic supply chain meets the NOP guidelines.

What we offer in the field of organic standard and certification

As one of the largest management system certification consulting companies across the world with clients in more than 40 countries, our knowledge and experience of the standards is unsurpassed. We understand how to fully exploit the benefits of your organic certification to ensure you unlock the true potential in your organization.

We provide unmatched expertise and technical competence to ensure that your organic certification project adds value to your organization.

We provide consulting, training, internal audits, pre assessment audits and facilitation during organic certification audit.

We offer our global knowledge moulded locally to bring in the best results for our clients and partner their journey of standardization, compliance, growth, success and continual improvements.

Contact us now, to get your organization organic certified in the most effective and efficient manner while realizing the true benefits of the certification using our specialized organic certification implementation methodology that is less time consuming, fast, easy to understand and implement, result oriented, time bound and cost effective. Get organic certified now with us….