The New Edition of the Organic Product Inspector Registration Criteria Officially Released for Dissemination and Implementation

    On April 25, 2012, FOFCC dispatched personnel to attend a briefing session organized by the China Certification and Accreditation Association on the newly revised registration criteria for organic product certification inspectors. The meeting was chaired by Lu Yan, Director of the Registration Department I of CCAA. Liu Xiande, Deputy Director of the Registration Management Department of the Certification and Accreditation Administration of the People's Republic of China (CNCA), and Li Qiang, Deputy Secretary-General of CCAA, attended the meeting and delivered important speeches. More than 50 representatives from 23 organic product certification bodies across the country attended the meeting.
    At the briefing session, Liu Xiande introduced the changes and significant impacts of the new systems, including the GB/T 19630-2011 “Organic Products” national standard and the CNCA's "Implementation Rules for Organic Product Certification," which were issued and implemented on March 1 of this year. He stated that the CNCA would also promulgate the "Administrative Measures for Organic Product Certification" to form a new regulatory system for organic certification. This system is characterized by strictness as its foremost principle, namely strict standards, strict access, strict enforcement, and serious handling; it is more operable and more uniformly applied; it establishes a traceability system featuring traceable products, anti-counterfeiting labels, and controllable quantities; and it introduces risk analysis and risk management.
Li Qiang introduced to the attendees that the registration system for organic product certification practitioners has been continuously improved along with the CNCA's refinement of the organic certification system. The recently issued new version of the registration criteria for organic product certification inspectors places greater emphasis on the practitioners themselves. He stated that in the field of organic certification, “integrity and ethics are actually more important than competence.” Practitioners“ compliance with laws and regulations, adherence to professional ethics, and honest practice are the guarantees of the effectiveness, impartiality, and objectivity of organic certification, as well as the foundation for the sustainable development of the organic certification market. All organic certification bodies should deepen their understanding of the national certification personnel registration system, grasp the essence of certification in ”conveying trust and serving development," objectively analyze the moral standards and technical competence composition of practitioners, and attach great importance to long-term professional ethics cultivation and standardized management of practitioners. At the same time, they should adhere to the principle of impartiality in their market activities related to organic certification.
    In accordance with a series of work arrangements by the CNCA to strengthen organic certification supervision, CCAA has suspended the registration qualifications of more than 260 organic product certification inspectors who were registered under the old version of the registration criteria but did not participate in conversion training and examinations. Their qualifications may be restored only after completing the conversion training and examinations. Furthermore, CCAA will further standardize the management of organic certification practitioners from four major aspects: refining professional categories, raising access thresholds, strictly enforcing the assessment process, and strengthening post-certification supervision.
According to CCAA's new version of the registration criteria for organic product certification inspectors, the registration specialties for organic product certification inspectors have changed from three specialties—planting, livestock breeding, and processing—to seven specialties under four categories—plant, livestock and poultry, aquatic, and processing—namely plant production, wild plant collection, edible fungus cultivation, livestock and poultry breeding, bees and bee products, aquaculture, and processing. Requirements for expanding the scope of specialties have been added, and the expansion circumstances for two types of registration specialties have been delineated. In addition, requirements have been raised for applicants' educational background, work experience, and professional work experience. The assessment process for applicants has been tightened, mainly including adding training and written examination content requirements, placing prominent emphasis on inspection skills requirements, and newly adding witness evaluation requirements. More explicit provisions have also been made regarding post-certification qualification maintenance requirements and qualification disposition.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/am/11379/