Natural Food Certifiers is a company that’s one of about 75 organizations that can grant the USDA Organic seal.
To get the right to put one of those “USDA Organic” seals on their products, farmers and companies need to pass inspections by companies such as Natural Food Certifiers who work with the federal agency and the farmer (or rancher or coffee roaster). That means the process of getting certified as organic comes with a lot of paperwork.
“I feel like every time I’m here, my clothes smell like chocolate for the next few days,” Dovi NaparstekNFC INSPECTOR
“If you are brokering, handling or managing organic product, you need to be certified.”
In the inspections, we as NFC will take a sample of an ingredient or finished product and send it to a lab to identify the substances it contains as all the ingredients need to be certified organic.
Mendy Flamer, owner of Natural Food Certifiers, who also attended the inspection, notes that this is all part of adhering to organic principles.
As new rules have been set by the Department of Agriculture, that will start to be enforced in March, this will change the requirements and increase the amount of paperwork, as previously, not all middlemen moving organic goods along the supply chain had to be certified organic.
The organic certification has benefited many businesses like Raaka Chocolate as it allows them to partner with larger retailers that understand the power of the organic seal.
There are costs to have certified organic ingredients, also the ingredients themselves generally cost more and the paperwork may be intimidating but the opportunities are worth it.
Read and listen to the journey of one of our inspectors at Natural Food Certifiers, Dovi Naparstek, at a New York Chocolate Factory (Raaka) written by Stephanie Hughes from Marketplace.
