Recently, our institution has received a large number of consultations from certified enterprises, and generally misinterpreted the ' Anniversary Date ' marked on the NOP certificate as the ' expiry date ' of the certificate, and thus required our institution to issue the ' NOP certificate validity certificate '. In order to avoid misunderstandings that affect the export customs clearance and label use of enterprises, it is hereby uniformly explained as follows :文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/36456/
1. The NOP certificate itself does not have a fixed validity period 文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/36456/
According to the American Organic Program ( NOP ) 7 CFR § 205.404 Granting certification ( d ), it is clearly stipulated that :Once certified, a production or handling operation's organic certification continues in effect until surrendered by the organic operation or suspended or revoked by the certifying agent, the State organic program's governing State official, or the Administrator.That is, once the NOP organic product certification certificate is issued, it continues to be valid and has no expiration date, and is terminated only in the following three cases :文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/36456/
- The certified enterprise voluntarily gives up the certification ( surrendered ).
- U.S. official regulators or certification bodies suspended.
- U.S. official regulators or certification bodies revoked ( revoked )
Therefore, under the NOP system, there is no statement that the certificate is valid for several years, and there is no need to issue a ' certificate of validity '. Customers or regulatory authorities can be guided to log into the organic integrity system ( OID ) of the United States Department of Agriculture to verify the real-time authentication status according to the certificate number or the name of the certified organization.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/36456/
2. ' Anniversary Date ' is not an expiration date, but an annual review node文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/36456/
The Anniversary Date marked on the certificate is the cut-off point for the annual submission of the Organic System Project ( OSP ) and annual certification materials by the certified organization. It is calculated from the on-site inspection date of the previous year and is only used to remind the enterprise to complete the annual re-certification process on time.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/36456/
Special clarification is needed :文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/36456/
Anniversary Date ≠ Validity of Certificate文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/36456/
Overdue Anniversary Date Unsubmitted Material ≠ Certificate Automatic Invalidation文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/36456/
As long as it is not suspended / revoked in writing, the certificate status is whether the continuously valid NOP certificate is ' valid ', which is not directly related to whether the Anniversary Date expires, and the key depends on the real-time status in the OID system.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/36456/
3.How should the enterprise self-examination and maintenance 文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/36456/
- Before the annual Anniversary Date, take the initiative to submit updated OSP and annual certification materials to the certification authority to cooperate with the completion of the annual re-certification inspection ( including possible unannounced inspection ).
- Self-check certificate status at any time : Log in to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Organic Integrity System ( OID ) query https://organic.ams.usda.gov/integrity/
- If you need to terminate the certificate, please formally submit the application for waiver of certification in writing to avoid the suspension of the certificate due to overdue failure to cooperate with the annual review.
- For export customs clearance, customer factory inspection and other scenarios, if asked about the ' certificate validity period ', you can directly refer to this note and § 205.404 ( d ), or ask the other party to log in to OID for verification.
文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/36456/