Maintaining Certification

Duration - 1 year

System Certification of a Client's operation is valid for one year. Only in the case of a serious non-compliance with the Standard can it be suspended or revoked by CERT ID.

Interim

During this one-year term audits and inspections, as well as sampling and testing, assure that the System Certification status remains valid. The Certification Plan agreed upon by both the Client and CERT ID lays down the details of these tools. Location, frequency, etc., are all determined in this document.

Assured traceability, however, is only possible by issuing Transaction Certificates of Compliance (TCC) with each and every transaction of certified material. Only this method enables documentation of traceability through CERT ID's Database. By providing their customers with TCCs, a CERT ID Client can demonstrate with each shipment that it has the status of 'Non-GMO' Product Certification. CERT ID issues TCCs at the request of a Client with System Certification. Again, TCCs are issued for each sale of certified product. These certificates are filed in the Database for traceability of certified products.

All records of inspections, audits, samples, testing, non-conformance issues and correspondences are also kept on file in the Database for traceability purposes.

Typical aspects of a Certification Plan:

MONITORING CLIENT:

Period audits and inspections are performed to monitor the client’s ability to comply with the CERT ID Standard and conform to the requirements outlined in the Certification Plan.

MONITORING SAMPLES:

A Client is monitored through GMO testing of routinely taken input and output samples along with samples obtained during inspections and audits.

Samples are submitted for PCR testing according to the Plan. The Client is informed of the test results. If a result is 0.1% or above the client is required to explain the reason for this level of GMO. In some cases an inspector may visit the Client's operational facility for additional information. The Client is then asked to write a corrective action report in order to avoid future incidents that would contaminate product. It goes without saying that the product in question will not receive Cert ID 'Non-GMO' Product Certification.

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