What is the certification process ?

1. Preliminary evaluation.
   Initial evaluation of the products and of the production process, which also includes the evaluation of the composition of the products for which certification is required, as well as the conformity of raw materials and suppliers.
2. On-site inspection.
   On-site inspection, which aims to ascertain: the effective compliance of the products with the OCS criteria; the systematic application of operating procedures for the correct management of identification and traceability in accordance with the criteria set by the Content Claim Standard (CCS) developed and adopted by the Textile Exchange; the correct organization and management of manufacturing processes and internal procedures likely to compromise the conformity of the product itself.
3. Issuance of the Certificate of Conformity.
   Issuance of the Certificate of Conformity on the basis of the information and data collected as part of the evaluation and verification process.

OR

Principles of The OCS Certification:

• The OCS provides third – party verification of organic material content in a product and options for corresponding consumer facing claims. It addresses the flow of product within and between companies, raw material verification, post harvest processing, manufacturing, packaging and labeling, storage, handling and shipping through the seller in the last business to business transaction.

• The OCS requires all organizations to be certified beginning with post harvest processing sites. (The raw material farming company shall not be certified to both Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) and OCS. If a farm is certified to OCS and wants to be certified to GOTS, it shall contact its responsible CB to terminate its OCS Scope Certificate prior tot he GOTS scope Certificate Issuance)

• Raw materials or fibers producing companies have to be certified by an accredited certification body to comply with the USDA National Organic Program (NOP), Regulation (EC) 834/2007 or IFOAM family.( Testing for the presence of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) in the organic material shall be carried out by the certification body(CB) based on a risk assessment.)

• The OCS allows “in-conversion” organic material as inputs if the applicable farming standard permit such certification.

• All Organic materials entering the supply chain shall have a Transaction Certificate (TX) issued by the Certification Body.

• The OCS may be used any product that contains non-food organic material (Any products being sold in the United States and making a reference to “Organic” on the label shall have the organic materials certified to the USDA NOP standard(As per USDA Policy).

• The OCS Applies to products that contain 5% to 100% Organic material.

• Buyers of the OCS product are responsible to set any requirement on the specific organic standards to which the input material should be certified.