Organic food refers to food from the production system of organic agriculture. Organic agriculture refers to a sustainable agriculture that does not use synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, growth regulators and feed additives in the production process. It emphasizes strengthening the virtuous circle of natural life and biodiversity. The certification body of organic food proves that the production, processing, storage, transportation and sales point of the food meet the standards of organic food through certification. It is worth noting that there are many organic certification bodies at present, and some certification bodies can issue organic certification qualification certificates as long as they spend money, which seriously disrupts the normal order of the organic food market, and the relevant departments are conducting an inventory. Therefore, when selecting an organic food certification body, the chairman must pay attention to verifying whether the certification body has been approved by authoritative departments such as China National Certification and Accreditation Administration (CNCA) and China National Accreditation Committee for Conformity Assessment, and has a formal approval number. Taking the certification process of China Organic Food Certification Center (COFCC), which is in charge of the Ministry of Agriculture, as an example, the following explains the working procedure of applying for certification of organic food:

(1) Application.

① The applicant logs in www.ofcc.org.cn to download and fill in the Application for Organic Food Certification and the Questionnaire for Organic Food Certification, download the List of Written Materials for Organic Food Certification and prepare relevant materials as required.

② The applicant submits the documents required by the Application for Organic Food Certification, the Questionnaire for Organic Food Certification and the List of Written Materials for Organic Food Certification, and makes a formal application.

③ The applicant establishes the quality management system, technical measures of quality assurance system and quality information tracking and processing system of the enterprise according to the requirements of Part IV of the National Standard for Organic Products.

(2) document review.

① the certification center conducts contract review and document review on the application materials.

② after passing the examination, the certification center will estimate the certification fee according to the characteristics of the project and the detailed rules of certification fees, and send the Acceptance Notice and the Organic Food Certification Inspection Contract (hereinafter referred to as the Inspection Contract) to the enterprise.

③ if the examination is unqualified, the certification center will notify the applicant and will not accept his application in that year.

④ after confirming the acceptance notice, the applicant signs the inspection contract with the certification center.

⑤ according to the requirements of the inspection contract, the applicant pays the relevant fees to ensure the normal development of the preliminary work of certification.

(3) field inspection.

① after the enterprise sends back the Inspection Contract and pays relevant fees, the certification center will send qualified inspectors.

② The inspector shall obtain the applicant's relevant information from the certification center, and conduct on-the-spot inspection and evaluation on the applicant's quality management system, production process control, tracking system, origin, production, processing, storage, transportation and trade according to the requirements of the Rules for the Implementation of Organic Product Certification.

③ when necessary, the inspector needs to sample the soil and products, and the applicant will send the samples to the designated quality inspection agency for testing.

(4) write inspection report.

after the inspector completes the inspection, he shall prepare the inspection report according to the requirements of the certification center within the specified time and submit it to the certification center.

(5) Comprehensive review and evaluation opinions.

the certification center conducts comprehensive evaluation according to the application form, questionnaire and other related materials provided by the applicant, as well as the inspector's inspection report and sample inspection report, and the evaluation report is submitted to the certification Committee.

(6) certification decision.

The Certification Committee conducts a comprehensive review of the applicant's basic information questionnaire, the inspector's inspection report and the evaluation opinions of the certification center, and makes a decision to approve the certification, conditionally issue the certification, organically change the certification or refuse to issue the certification. The certificate is valid for one year.

when the application project is complex (such as aquaculture, fishery, processing and other projects), or within a certain period of time (such as 6 months), convene a working meeting of the technical Committee to make a certification decision on the corresponding project.

① agree to issue certificates. The application content fully meets the organic standard, and an organic certificate is issued.

② conditional certification. The content of the application basically meets the standard of organic food, but some aspects need to be improved. After the applicant promises in writing to improve as required, an organic certificate can also be issued.

③ organic conversion certification. The applicant's base has entered the conversion period for more than one year, and continues to implement the organic conversion plan and issue an organic conversion certificate. The products harvested from the organic conversion base can be sold as organic conversion products, that is, "organic conversion products", if they are processed in an organic way.

④ refusing to issue certificates. If the application content fails to meet the requirements of organic standards, the certification committee refuses to issue the certificate, and explains the reasons.

(7) The certification decision is issued.

after the certification committee makes the certification decision, the director of the center authorizes the secretariat of the certification committee (Certification Department II) to use the signature stamp on the certification report according to the conclusion made by the certification committee and issue the certification decision.

(8) Use of organic food labels.

According to the requirements of the certificate and the Articles of Association for the Use of Organic Food (Products) Marks, sign the License Contract for the Use of Organic Food (Products) Marks, and go through the procedures for the use of organic/organic conversion marks.

(9) maintain certification.

① The organic food certification is valid for 1 years. In the new year, COFCC will issue a Notice of Maintaining Certification to the certified enterprises.

② After receiving the Notice of Maintaining Certification, the certified enterprise shall submit certification materials as required, communicate with the contact person to determine the time of on-site inspection and pay relevant fees in time.

③ The procedures of document review, on-the-spot inspection, comprehensive evaluation and certification decision for maintaining certification are the same as those for initial certification.