Certification News Strengthening Organic Enforcement

New Rule From USDA

The Strengthening Organic Enforcement (SOE) Rule put forth by USDA National Organic Program (NOP) was published on January 19, 2023. This is the most significant change to the national organic regulations since the creation of the NOP. The rule is intended to safeguard confidence in organic products and minimize fraud throughout the organic supply chain. All operations, including handlers who are currently certified and those who will be newly affected by the rule, must meet all of the requirements in the rule by March 19, 2024.

Changes to exemptions require that many uncertified operations achieve organic certification by March 19, 2024. To implement this requirement, CCOF sent a letter to every CCOF-certified operation in mid-June 2023 asking about uncertified handlers. This includes all operations currently covered by an Uncertified Handler Affidavit (UHA), storage facilities, private label brand owners, brokers, traders, wholesalers, distributors, importers, exporters, and more. The letter included a certification self-assessment tool for uncertified handlers as well as an Exempt Handler Affidavit for uncertified handlers to complete.

Other major impacts of SOE include the following:

• Nonretail containers used to ship or store organic products will be required to identify the product as organic and display the lot number or shipping identification to link the container to the audit trail documentation. Audit trail documentation for nonretail containers must identify the last certified operation that handled the organic product.

• Standardized organic certificates will be required and will be available in the Organic Integrity Database at organic.ams.usda.gov/integrity. Certifiers will be required to update the Organic Integrity Database more regularly, making this database a critical tool for verifying that a supplier is certified. Certified operations do not need to take any action to fulfill this requirement.

• Certified processor/handler operations will be required to develop monitoring practices to verify suppliers in the supply chain, confirm the organic status of products received, and prevent fraud.

• NOP Import Certificates will be required for all organic products entering the United States, even for product certified to USDA NOP standards. NOP Import Certificates must be maintained by importers, who must be certified. CCOF strives to process import/export certificate requests within two business days and is a leader in the industry.

If you work with an uncertified operation that will need to be certified, encourage them to apply early. Thousands of operations will be affected and need to be fully certified by the deadline on March 19, 2024, to maintain their products’ organic integrity. Operations in need of certification should contact getcertified@ccof.org or call (831) 423-2263, ext. 1 to learn more about our 2023 SOE discount.

YouTube SOE Playlist: https://go.ccof.org/SOEVideos