Industry-leading innovation makes certification easier and faster.
(January 22, 2014) Santa Cruz, CA – CCOF continues to streamline organic certification through its materials revolution and will demo a new Materials Search service January 22-25 in Pacific Grove, California, at the CCOF exhibitor booth at EcoFarm.
CCOF continues to break new ground by introducing the online Materials Search in January 2014. The new service, which is available to CCOF members, combines CCOF internally-reviewed materials, OMRI Products List© materials, and WSDA Brand Name List materials in one place! The comprehensive list found in MyCCOF allows members to check the status of any reviewed material and request its inclusion in their Organic System Plan (OSP).
“CCOF members will never need to guess if a material has been reviewed and can request OSP changes online day or night, even with a smartphone,” explains CCOF Certification Services, LLC President Jake Lewin. This is also the first time that CCOF’s internal material review information has been available to its members, and it includes all reviews so clients know what has and has not been approved in the past. This provides full transparency to all members while saving them time and making certification more efficient.
The new Materials Search allows operations of all types to check to see if their brand name processing aid, additive, fertilizer, etc. is allowed for use in their organic operation. The operation can then request immediate addition of the material to their OSP through an interactive OSP update process. This will be especially beneficial to certified livestock and processing operations, who typically do not use many OMRI or WSDA-listed materials. CCOF has internally reviewed a wide range of materials for use in livestock and processing operations.
In addition to Materials Search, CCOF provides members with access to certification information via MyCCOF, an online certification management tool. The tool includes MyCCOF: Supplier Management, which allows members to track the real-time status of supplier certifications.
CCOF strives to keep certification costs low while still innovating certification processes that give new benefits to all members. “We are deeply committed to amazing and delighting our members with new ways to streamline certification processes so that we can focus on ensuring organic standards and not paperwork,” said Mr. Lewin. “In the last several months, we implemented new inspection reporting tools to speed up and improve the quality of the reporting and review processes.”
Demonstrations of the new Materials Search will be available at the CCOF exhibitor booth during upcoming conferences and trade shows: EcoFarm, January 22-25; World Ag Expo, February 11-13; and Natural Product Expo West, March 6-9.
CCOF would like to express sincere gratitude to the Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI) and the Washington State Department of Agriculture materials review program for their support and assistance in bringing this service to its members.
About CCOF
CCOF (California Certified Organic Farmers), a nonprofit organization, was founded in 1973 and is one of the nation’s oldest and largest third-party organic certifying agencies. CCOF certifies, educates, advocates, and promotes organic through:
• A premier organic certification program for growers, processors, handlers, and retailers.
• Programs to increase awareness of and demand for certified organic product and to expand public support for organic agriculture.
• Advocacy for governmental policies that protect and encourage organic agriculture.
CCOF certifies more than 2,700 organic operations in 38 states and three countries.
MyCCOF: Materials Search is powered by Ecert Audit Management software. Ecert is created by Intact, developer of customized audit, traceability, and quality management software solutions.