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Supervision of
the IOAS
The IOAS is an international
accreditation body with a focus of organic and sustainable agriculture and
trade. We are independent and have not been designated by any government to
perform the work we do. Our interest is purely cultivating integrity and
trust in the field in which we work so that both producers and traders can
grow the area of land under organic and sustainable agriculture and create
sustainable livelihoods. We
are proud nevertheless that we comply and are independently verified as
complying with international rules on accreditation defined by the
International Standards Organisation (ISO)
in the document ISO/IEC Guide 17011:2004 - 'Conformity assessment - General
requirements for accreditation bodies accrediting conformity assessment
bodies'. The IOAS has
voluntarily subjected itself (since 2004) to assessment by the US
National Institute of
Standards & Technology (NIST) and we are subject to biannual
reassessment, annual surveillance and 4 monthly teleconferences to ensure
continued compliance. In
addition, as an approved Conformity Verification Body working under the
Canada Organic Regime we have been audited (also against ISO/IEC
17011:2022) by the Canada Organic Office and are subject to ongoing
surveillance by that entity.
We are a full member of the ISEAL
Alliance, a global association for social and environmental standards.
ISEAL members are leaders in their fields, committed to creating solid and
credible standard systems that give business, governments and consumers the
ability to choose goods and services that have been ethically sourced but
most of all help the environment and guarantee producers a decent living. To
be an accreditation member of ISEAL we have to maintain compliance with
ISO/IEC Guide 17011:2004. The
IOAS is also answerable to the various scheme owners with which we
collaborate; IFOAM,
Global Standard GmbH (GOTS) and
Textile Exchange. |
