In 2002, the US Department of Agriculture created a national ecological standard in the form of the National Organic Program (NOP) and the corresponding NOP Final Rule. This is mandatory for all organic products produced in or imported into the United States. All products labelled and marketed as organic in the USA must be inspected against the NOP Standard.

Any company wishing to label or market commodities of agricultural origin as organic in the USA is subject to mandatory inspection according to the NOP Final Rule. This mandatory inspection includes agricultural production, items harvested in the wild, processing and packaging.

For a commodity to be labelled and marketed as organic, the entire production chain must be seamlessly NOP certified, right up to the finished product. For example, apple juice can only be marketed as organic if all the apple producers and processing operations involved have been included in the NOP certification procedure.

You will find detailed information on the NOP Final Rule requirements on the USDA homepage.

ABCERT will employ all of its skills to support you through the NOP certification of your commodities. Approved by the USDA,  ABCERT will ensure that NOP Final Rule requirements are adhered to for the manufacture and processing of ecological products within your company.

For normal cases, experienced ABCERT inspectors will carry out an inspection of your company once a year, and will cover:

• Every area of your company where goods requiring to be NOP certified are produced, processed or stored (included external operation sites)
• On-site conversion of your data into the Organic System Plan (OSP)
• Equipment records
• All documents relating to your NOP certification (documents accompanying goods, internal job instructions, cleaning procedures etc).

As necessary, additional announced and unannounced inspections can be requested as a further check that your company conforms to the NOP Final Rule.

If your company fulfils the requirements of the NOP Final Rule, we will issue you with your NOP Certificate. This entitles you to market your company’s products as being in conformity with the NOP Final Rule.

We welcome your enquiry if you are interested in having your company certified according to the NOP Final Rule, and will be happy to supply you with further information in person.