As part of the Strengthening Organic Enforcement (SOE) Rule, USDA National Organic Program (NOP) organic certificates will be standardized across all certifiers, starting March 19, 2024.
CCOF-certified operations will receive their new standardized NOP organic certificate the week of March 18, 2024.
This change does not impact your CCOF Client Profile Addendum or any additional certification or verification program certificates.
All certifiers must create new standardized NOP organic certificates in the NOP’s Organic Integrity Database. These certificates will be publicly available on each Operation Profile page in the Organic Integrity Database (OID). CCOF operations will still be able to view and download their organic certificates in MyCCOF.
CCOF will also be updating our internal procedures to supply all certified operations with a new NOP organic certificate at the beginning of each year. 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.
Your Client Profile Addendum and additional certification or verification certificates will 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 will be able to access their certificates in the Organic Integrity Database after March 20, 2024. 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 on the OID. In addition to including the certificate, OID may also include an addendum listing specific products, parcels, or animals (this will not be included for CCOF-certified suppliers). 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’s addendum.
Example of the new certificate
