NaturaCert gets accreditation from joint ANSI-IOAS assessment

THE American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the IOAS have recently awarded accreditation to Fundación Natura Certificación (NaturaCert) of Bogotá, Colombia for the scope Florverde General Regulations. This is the first product certification body (CB) accredited by ANSI and IOAS under a new joint assessment process developed by the two organisations to broaden the global reach of effective third-party accreditation for certifiers of agricultural and food products.

A Colombian flower certification scheme, Florverde evaluates flower growers against an agricultural responsibility standard, sustainability and environmental practices, and adherence to national regulations. NaturaCert received the accreditation for Florverde last November 6.

The new ANSI-IOAS joint accreditation is the outcome of an agreement ANSI signed with the IOAS in 2011 titled, "American National Standards Institute Contract for the Evaluation by the IOAS of Specific Applicants for ANSI Food Safety Accreditation." The new joint accreditation process involves an assessment team comprising one ANSI assessor and one cross-trained IOAS assessor to leverage the expertise of two accreditation bodies. ANSI trains and qualifies the IOAS assessors as lead/technical assessors for the ANSI Product Certification Accreditation Program focusing on food safety.

The first accreditation adopting the new process was that for NaturaCert. The joint assessment process involved an ANSI lead assessor and a cross-trained IOAS technical assessor.

The process is now available for all ANSI Product Certification Accreditation Programs in the food safety area such as GlobalGAP, SQF, BRC, IFS, Florverde, and CanadaGAP.