Role changes in the IOAS

This January will  mark several major changes in the IOAS. David Crucefix our current Executive Director of Operations will become the sole IOAS Executive Director. Amaia Aldana will become our Programme Manager with Andrés Vásquez Millán becoming the Assistant Programme Manager, Gergana Nentcheva will assist with additional development work and Cris Comezana will become our full time Quality Manager. Ken Commins will stay on as the Chief Financial Officer until April 2019.

We welcome Sandeep Bhargava and Mrs. Sahana C.A. to our IOAS Board and Accreditation Committee respectively.

Finally we thank Boudewijn van Elzakker and Diana Callear,who have completed their board service and Patricio Parra and Qiao Yuhui  who were part of the IOAS accreditation committee and have officially stepped down. Their combined knowledge and experience, coupled with passion and commitment to the IOAS mission has been highly valued.  Bo has accepted a position on the IOAS accreditation committee. More information on the IOAS board and the AC committee is available on the IOAS website.

IOAS Biofach Seminar Friday February 15th 2019
We will be presenting a seminar on a major new project at Biofach Nuremberg 2019 on the concerns and deficiencies of organic inspection and certification identified at the IOAS Delhi Seminar held in 2017. We would be really interested to see you there and gather your views so please book this space (14.00 to 15.30h).

Appointments can be made via email to meet us at Biofach 2019.



Out and about - Want to talk to the IOAS? We are always happy to try to accommodate meetings with Certifiers and scheme holders.

Recently, David Crucefix, IOAS ED, worked with Brahim Houla of GCC Accreditation Center, Saudi Arabia to provide a 3-day training course in the Philippines between November 15-17 on process certification according to ISO/IEC 17065. Training was provided under the auspices of the Pacific Accreditation Cooperation and was hosted by the Philippine Accreditation Bureau.

Our Assistant Executive Director, Iris Rendon, attended the IAF-ILAC joint meetings in Singapore. Please note that the IAF passed a resolution  requiring CBs to reference their Accreditation body on accredited certificates with an implementation timeline of 3 years.

Andrés Vásquez Millán and Iris attended the November annual meeting of Conformity Verification Bodies with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency in Ottawa.

Appointments can be made via email to meet us at Biofach 2019.

International solutions

There are a number of options in terms of organic product certification that will be accepted in various global markets. 

IOAS offers assessment services for EU Equivalent Certification Programs. All certification bodies who have clients outside the EU with products destined for EU markets must demonstrate that they implement a control system and use a production standard which has been assessed as equivalent to the rules applied inside Europe. Certification bodies are assessed against the control requirements set down in Regulation (EC) 834/2007 and its various implementing regulations. 

IOAS is also approved by the CFIA to provide assessment services for the Canada Organic Regime (COR). IOAS performs assessment of certification bodies according to ISO 17065 and the COR Operating Manual requirements, and make a recommendation for accreditation to CFIA.

The USDA National Organic Program (NOP) and the Canadian Organic Regime (COR) have an organic standards equivalency agreement, which means that products from anywhere in the world certified to Canadian standards may also be shipped to the United States and use the USDA NOP logo as long as the product meets the critical requirements. You can find more information on these and all of our service offerings on the IOAS website.

Official Notices

EU revision process

For further information on any topics presented here, please contact info@ioas.org

Best regards,
 

The IOAS team