International Organic Accreditation Service .........  the global organic guarantee
               

      


IFOAM Accreditation

Global Organic System Accreditation

ISO Guide 65 Accreditation

European Recognition Programme

Canada Organic Regime

Access to US market

Global Organic Textiles

Sustainable Agriculture Network/Rainforest Alliance

Textile Exchange

COSMOS
Food Safety Schemes

Documents

Training

Information services

Regulating organic agriculture
Regulators and regulations
Certification bodies
Organic trade
Organic producers
Complaints, feedback and fraud
Working with us
 

Cultivating integrity and trust across the organic community .....

The International Organic Accreditation Service is an independent, non-profit organisation that works on behalf of everybody involved in organic agriculture to ensure trust and fair trade in products labelled as organic.

In this way the services we provide assist:

Our main activity is to verify the competence of certification bodies active in the field of organic and sustainable agriculture. We work world-wide, focusing our work solely in this field and apply our unparalleled experience with energy and commitment. We ourselves are supervised by several government agencies and private organisations so you can be sure that our integrity is not only based on our word.

By ‘cultivating integrity’ we help to expand the area of land under organic and ecological management throughout the world - our contribution to a sustainable world.

Our direct clients are the certification or control bodies that inspect farms, processors and traders and the main services we provide are as follows:

At the same time as the world becomes ever-more regulated, the commitment of the IOAS is to continually work to reduce the burden of accreditation. We speak for harmonisation but in its absence we have designed our assessment system to handle the many regulations and standards in one assessment process. By doing so we provide the confidence needed at a cost that does not undermine the system we are trying to encourage.

This site also provides information and a wide range of links to sites on more general topics related to the world wide regulation of organic foods and farming.

We hope you find what you are looking for; if not please contact us.

 

Last updated: 27-Mar-2012

NEWS

March 8: In the EU the regulation (EC)203/2012 amends implementing rules (889/2008) to include organic wine production. More ...

Feb 21: 3 new services from the IOAS.

Feb 15: The USA and European Union announce a bilateral equivalence agreement that will allow organic products certified under either regime to be sold without further verifications in the other territory. Some limitations apply. US announcement. EU regulation.

Jan 25: The IOAS are seeking a freelance expert in organic and natural cosmetics. More ..

Jan 24: Bookmark your BioFach programme to attend our panel session on IFOAM accreditation and imports - Wednesday February 15th, 15-16.00h, room Oslo, CNN Ost level 2. View the discussion paper EN, ES, FR, DE

Jan 23: The IOAS invites applications for a 3 month volunteer 'virtual' internship. More ...

Dec 28: Happy Holidays and best wishes for 2012 from the IOAS to all our colleagues and collaborators!

Dec 6: European Commission publishes first list of equivalent certification bodies. View the IOAS press release.

Nov 25: IOAS reduces accreditation fees for limited scope programmes. More ....

Nov 17: Robert Duxbury of the United Kingdom takes over as IOAS President and Diana Callear of South Africa becomes Vice President.

Nov 1: Cristina Comezaña of Argentina joins the IOAS as Client Manager.

Oct 26: IFOAM invite applications for an Organic Guarantee System expert.

Sep 23: Governments can use IFOAM accreditation to ease the burden of international trade requirements for organic products

Sep 22: Following an amendment to the Chilean regulation on organic agriculture the IOAS can now provide accreditation to the Chilean Norm 20.089 as a basis for certifier approval to operate in Chile.

Aug 9: The IOAS annual report for 2010 is available.

More......

 
Quick links:  Home : Accreditation application forms : Accreditation fee schedule : Norms download 

 Quick external links:  IFOAM : EU Regulation 834/2007: Canada Organic Regime : GOTS : SAN : Textile Exchange : USDA NOP : JAS : Codex Guidelines : ISEAL : ITF : NIST

IOAS 235 Sims Street, Suite 22B, Dickinson ND 58601, USA Tel: +1 701 483 5504 Fax: +1 701 483 5508 Email: info@ioas.org Webmaster: web@ioas.org  © IOAS
All photos on this site have been taken by IOAS staff or contributed by accredited certification bodies