As part of the Strengthening Organic Enforcement (SOE) Rule, USDA National Organic Program (NOP) organic certificates are now standardized across all certifiers as of March 19, 2024.
CCOF-certified operations were sent their new standardized NOP organic certificate on March 20, 2024.
This change does not impact your CCOF Client Profile Addendum or any additional certification or verification program certificates.
The new standardized NOP organic certificates are created in the NOP’s Organic Integrity Database (OID). These certificates are publicly available on each Operation Profile page in the OID. CCOF-certified operations can still view and download your organic certificate in MyCCOF.
CCOF has also updated our internal procedures to supply all certified operations with a new NOP organic certificate at the beginning of each year. In addition, you will also receive a new NOP organic certificate if there is a change to your operation that warrants a certificate change, such as adding a new scope to your certification. Since NOP organic certificates are created outside of CCOF’s internal systems, there is a turnaround of one business day for receiving new NOP organic certificates via email and through MyCCOF. You will be able to see your new NOP certificate in OID within 1–2 hours from when you receive your certification decision email.
Your Client Profile Addendum and additional certification or verification certificates continue to be updated upon completion of inspection review, or any time you make a change to your parcels, products, brands, facilities, and/or livestock. Your organic Client Profile Addendum and additional non-NOP certificates can be obtained in the same way you previously accessed them.
If you work with or purchase organic products from operations certified to USDA NOP standards, you can now access their certificates in the OID. This could change your supplier verification processes. You will no longer need to request NOP certificates directly from your suppliers; you can access them yourself in the OID. In addition to the certificate, OID includes an Operation Profile addendum listing specific products, parcels, or animals. Depending on what you are purchasing, the OID addendum may not be sufficient to demonstrate supplier compliance. For example, OID will not list brands or international compliance. If the OID addendum is not sufficient, you will need to request the certifier-generated addendum.