To Become Certified Organic, Every Year We Are Required To:

• Submit an application
• Pay the fees
• Provide a “handler organic plan” describing all of the safeguards to ensure proper handling of organic material and proper cleaning of all equipment (even the type of cleaning solutions we use are monitored)
• Provide the organic certificates from each of our suppliers for each organic ingredient used in each of our organic products
• Provide a map of our facility depicting the location of all preparation areas and storage areas for organic raw materials as well as the finished products. Organic certification is not only based on compliance with NOP (National Organic Program) standards, but on the ability to uphold those standards.
• Provide a quality assurance plan that includes ongoing education for our employees
• Provide extensive record keeping plans and logs, that are audited each year, to keep track of the organic ingredients in every product we make that guarantees the organic integrity of the product through continuous traceability, from receipt of the raw material to release of the product.
• Provide written annual production plans

Post reviewing our application an Ecocert accredited audit officer will randomly choose a sampling of products off of our shelves and we must be able to demonstrate the following . . .

• The labeling complies with the ECOCERT COSMOS guidelines.
• The preparation, storage, and packaging, which is charted from ingredients to finished product, complies with COSMOS STANDARD guidelines.
• Our organic product output matches our organic ingredient intake. For example, if the inspector chooses our organic lip Butter, we are required to show how many we have sold in a given year. If we sold 1000 units, we must be able to show a flow chart that includes . . .
• The date, recipe and batch number for each batch made
• The lot numbers of all organic ingredients used
• The amount of each ingredient used in the recipe
• The matching invoices for each ingredient with lot numbers to show that we indeed purchased all the certified organic ingredients needed to make the 1000 units of organic lip butter
• This guarantees the organic integrity of the product through continuous traceability, from receipt of the raw material to sale of the product.

This entire process is required and repeated twice a year to assure consistent compliance!