Cert ID, A SUCCESSFUL EXAMPLE OF AN INDEPENDENT, THIRD-PARTY, PRIVATE CERTIFICATION SYSTEM
(Full details here, as a pdf file)
John Fagan [2003]
Cert ID’s mission is to provide third party, independent certification of food and agricultural products to a range of standards, including non-GMO, organic, and meat traceability. It is a subsidiary of Genetic ID, which offers testing and consultation services designed to provide comprehensive solutions related to GMOs and other emerging food issues, such as allergenicity.
In this paper we review the development, implementation, and current operation of Cert ID as a “case study” for private certification programs, in general.
Certification Today: Creating a Bridge of Confidence between Buyer and Seller
The food system is undergoing massive and rapid transformation. In our grandparent’s era, most food was produced locally. When Grandmother went shopping, she would look the farmer or butcher in the eye and ask, “Is this fresh and flavorful?” The supplier knew that if he/she did not answer accurately, Grandmother would go to a different vendor next week. In that day, there was a personal basis upon which trust was developed between buyer and seller.
The situation is quite different today. The food system is global. Soybeans may be grown in Iowa from seed produced in Brazil. They are then shipped to Japan, where they are combined with wheat from Australia and transformed into soy sauce, which is finally sold to consumers in Belgium. A single product can contain ingredients from three or four different continents. Many of the transactions at the industrial level are consummated sight-unseen. The anonymity of this system can create situations, especially at the retail end of the food chain, where confidence in the products is not strong. “Is this fresh locally grown French chicken, or is it inexpensive, defrosted Thai chicken?” “How can I know for sure?” In addition, confidence has been eroded in recent years, especially in Europe and Japan by a spate of food scares.
The role of certification is to re-create that bridge of confidence between buyer and seller. People generally want to know, and have confidence in, what they are eating. They want transparency.
By creating transparency, certification helps sell products.
Certification also can be used to verify the quality of premium goods. As disposable income increases, health and status concerns motivate people to purchase higher quality, more expensive food products. For instance, they are prepared to pay 50 to 300 percent more for organic products because they contain little or no pesticides and are thus perceived as healthier. However, people are prepared to make the added financial outlay only if they are confident that they are receiving added value. They need to have confidence, trust, that the product is actually worth the extra money; they need reassurance that it is a bona fide premium product. Third-party, independent
certification systems are a powerful tool that the food industry can use to provide these
reassurances and thereby capture greater revenues from their higher quality products and from 2 products, such as the non-GMO products offered in Europe and Japan, which are designed to meet specific consumer needs or concerns.
Emergence of the Cert ID Program
Cert ID emerged in relation to the GMO issue, but it has expanded to encompass much more. It operates internationally to fulfill the growing needs of the globalizing food system for tools to verify a wide range of food characteristics. Examples include certification of products as non-GMO and organic certification, certification of the authenticity of premium meat products, and certification that products comply with specific national regulations, such as the new EU regulations on traceability.
Cert ID initially came into being as a result of convergence of two things, first, the recognition that a certified identity preservation and sourcing system was needed for non-GMO products, and, second, a concerted demand for such a program from the buyer end of the food chain. The recognition of the need for non-GMO certification emerged from Genetic ID’s experience in providing GMO testing services to the food and agricultural industries. Founded in 1996, Genetic ID provides ISO17025-accredited GMO analytical services and consulting services, and has built a network of 18 laboratories around the world—the Global Laboratory Alliance (GLA)—that including three laboratories owned by Genetic ID and another 15 that have licensed the Genetic ID GMO testing technology. All GLA members conduct GMO testing according to a uniform set of standard operating procedures, and all participate in ring trials and other quality assurance programs administered by Genetic ID to assure consistency of performance. GLA member-laboratories are listed in Table 1, below.
Genetic ID’s testing services were quickly adopted by organizations in producer regions, such as North and South America. These organizations used our testing services to facilitate the export of their products into consumer regions, such as Europe, the Middle East, Japan, and other destinations in the Pacific Rim, where consumer concern regarding GMOs was rapidly growing.
During the first year of Genetic ID’s operation, we gained a much deeper understanding of the food and agricultural industries. We had many opportunities to see how testing results were used by the industry and to assess the effectiveness of testing as a tool that industry could use to meet their business objectives. This led to the conclusion that, although testing is essential, it is not sufficient in itself to meet the needs of industry....
See also earlier GMO Pundit Posts:
- Genetics expert Dr John Fagan promotes a "risk free" crop technology
- Institute for Responsible Technology
And also a later post:
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