Urgent Notice on Further Standardising Certification Activities for Organic Products and Other Food and Agricultural Products 文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/11342/
Recently, various sectors of society have strongly reacted to issues such as the forgery, fraudulent use, expiration, and out-of-scope use of organic product certificate, certification marks, as well as irregular certification, consultation, and non-queryable data. These have caused a severe negative impact in society and drawn the high attention of multiple leaders of the State Council.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/11342/
Quality inspection departments at all levels and relevant certification bodies have rapidly launched rectification and self-inspection work based on feedback from all parties and in conjunction with work requirements such as “dual crackdowns” and “Quality Month”, effectively curbing a number of illegal and irregular practices. To further regulate organic certification and other food and agricultural product certification activities, an urgent notice regarding relevant matters is hereby issued as follows:文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/11342/
1. All certification bodies are requested to immediately update and complete all their food and agricultural product certification information in the “Food and Agricultural Product Certification Information System (food.cnca.cn)” by 31st October in accordance with the requirements of the *Notice on the Launch of the Food and Agricultural Product Certification Information System (Version 2.0)* (Ren Ban Fa Han [2011] No. 212), and effectively ensure the completeness, authenticity, and accuracy of the data items.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/11342/
II. The cnca Information Centre is requested to complete the data analysis for the “Food and Agricultural Products Certification Information System (food.cnca.cn)” by 4 November and to submit a data quality analysis report on certification bodies to our Commission, clearly identifying the issues with the data submitted by each certification body.Where issues are identified, our Commission will, in accordance with the provisions of the “Administrative Measures for Certification Bodies”, issue an administrative warning to the relevant certification bodies and set a deadline for rectification;In cases of serious non-compliance, whilst issuing an administrative warning to the relevant certification body, we shall temporarily suspend its authorisation to issue certification numbers via the “Food and Agricultural Products Certification Information System (food.cnca.cn)” until such time as the certification body has updated and rectified all certification information.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/11342/
III. The cnca Information Centre is requested to establish a monthly data analysis reporting system for the “Food and Agricultural Products Certification Information System (food.cnca.cn)”, and to submit analysis reports and recommendations for action to cnca on a regular basis, based on the results of the data analysis and the provisions of paragraph 2 of this notice.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/11342/
4. All certification bodies must immediately organise unannounced inspections of all enterprises certified for organic products, focusing on whether the certified enterprises' environment, production processes, inputs, sales volumes, and label controls comply with the requirements of the national standard GB/T 19630-2005 "Organic Products". Particular attention must be paid to high-risk or sensitive products such as honey products, dairy products, goji berries, and vegetables. For those that do not meet the requirements, their certificate should be immediately suspended or revoked, and the relevant unannounced inspection reports must be submitted to cnca by 30 November, with a copy sent to the local provincial quality supervision bureau and inspection and quarantine bureau at the same time.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/11342/
V. Please have the accreditation centre immediately organise and carry out unannounced accreditation inspections of all organic product certification bodies, focusing on whether activities such as the composition of certification bodies' inspection teams, the issuance of marks, and certification inspections comply with the Measures for the Administration of Organic Products, the Implementation Rules for Organic Product Certification, and the GB/T19630 Organic Products national standard. For those that do not meet the requirements, the certification body's accreditation qualification should be immediately suspended or revoked; in serious cases, a recommendation should be made to cnca to impose corresponding qualification penalties. Please have the accreditation centre submit the relevant unannounced inspection report to cnca by 31 December.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/11342/
6. The accreditation Association is requested to immediately conduct a risk assessment on the registration system for food and agricultural product certification personnel, further tighten the skill and professional ethics requirements for personnel registration, raise the entry threshold, organise and conduct continuing education for relevant food and agricultural product certification personnel in a timely and unified manner, clean up the certification personnel team, and report the relevant situation to cnca before 31 December.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/11342/
7. All bureaux are requested to coordinate with relevant departments according to their respective divisions of labour and immediately deploy and arrange comprehensive (sweeping) supervision and inspection work on certified enterprises and sales outlets of food and agricultural products such as organic products. First, focus on investigating and punishing acts of forging, illegally using, exceeding the time limit, or exceeding the scope of using certificate and certification marks for food and agricultural products such as organic products. Where violations of laws and regulations are involved, strict handling shall be carried out in accordance with relevant laws and regulations; second, focus on inspecting the continuous compliance with certification requirements of all certified enterprises such as organic certification within the jurisdiction. If problems are found, they shall be strictly investigated and punished in accordance with Article 60 of the Certification accreditation Regulations; third, focus on inspecting whether the certificate issuance information of certification bodies is consistent with the “Food and Agricultural Product Certification Information System (food.cnca.cn)”. Where certification bodies provide untrue information, they shall be investigated and punished in accordance with Article 53 of the Measures for the Administration of Certification Bodies; where certification bodies fail to report certification information as required, compile certificate numbers by themselves and issue certificate, and where the certificate held by relevant organisations are not in the “Food and Agricultural Product Certification Information System (food.cnca.cn)”, they shall be investigated and punished in accordance with Article 71 of the Certification accreditation Regulations. All bureaux are requested to report the supervision and inspection situation to cnca before 31 December 2011.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/11342/
8. In accordance with current seasonal consumption patterns, all quality and technical supervision bureaux are requested to adopt measures such as posting notices at sales locations to clearly display information on currently certified organic crab producers as well as reporting channels and methods, thereby guiding the general public towards informed consumption and effectively protecting consumer interests.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/11342/