One of the many initiatives arising from the implementation of the new USDA NOP Strengthening Organic Enforcement (SOE) rule is the use of a new organic certificate format by all NOP certifiers. These new certificates are issued through the USDA’s Organic Integrity Database (OID) and link directly to the operator’s certification status as updated live in the database.
An organic certificate serves as an indication of the bearer’s compliance with the certification program requirements. However, operators may fall out of compliance throughout their annual certification process and have their status surrendered, suspended, or revoked, while still maintaining a copy of their most recent certificate.
The new certificates will include both a scannable QR code linking to the OID listing as well as the operators NOP ID number which can be used within the OID to search for the operator specifically. This functionality is designed to allow more transparency on certification status for operators, making it easy and convenient to verify the current certification status of organic products and suppliers at the time of purchase or use of service.
With the launch of the program on March 19, 2024, the USDA will be mass issuing a new format certificate to all currently certified entities listed in the OID. At that time certifiers will collect and distributed the new certificate to the operators. Due to the volume of certificates being generated for our clients and globally, we expect that the collection, and distribution will take a number of days following launch.
For our NOP certified operators, we will be making every effort to provide a copy of the new format certificate in a timely manner. In the meantime, all currently certified operators are listed and updated in the OID and their certification status is confirmed there.
The new NOP format certificate will replace any previous Pro-Cert format USDA NOP Certificate of Conformity. As such, once received this should be the Certificate provided to customers when transacting NOP certified goods or services. Please note, that the accompanying Organic Production Summary (OPS) normally issued with a Certificate will remain valid and a necessary attachment when sharing a certificate with customers. In the coming months, we will be reassessing the format of the current OPS and renaming this document a Certificate Addendum, consistent with references with organic regulations.
Following the launch of the new certificate format, it is highly recommended that all Pro-Cert operators begin requesting updated certificates from their NOP certified suppliers and service providers and begin considering updates to their Organic System Plans (OSP) to integrate the monitoring of current supplier status using these new tools.
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