OCS
OCS Certification
What Is OCS?
Organic Content Standard
OCS stands for Organic Content Standard as clearly defined by its name this standard is focused to organic production. It addresses the flow of product within and between companies, raw material verification, post harvest processing, manufacturing, packing and labeling, storage, handling and shipping through the seller in the last business to business transaction and that can be traced back and verify through the process of TC – transaction certificate. It verifies the presence and amount of organic material in a final product. OCS applies to any non-food product that contains 5% to 100% organic material.
OSC based on two types of labels, one is OCS 100 can be used for 95% to 100% organic content and there is two ways to label the OCS 100 products. One that should be made/contain 100% organically grown material (only for products that can contain 100% organic material) and other one should be made/contain the 95% organic material and remaining content is not of the same type as the organic material it means that if any products organic material/contain less than 100% will also come under the OCS 100 labels but both having separate labels of OCS 100.
OCS blended is another label that can be used for the product made/contained by 5% to 99% organic material and there is no restriction on the remaining content.
OCS does not address the use of chemicals or any social or environmental aspects of production beyond the integrity of the organic material. The OCS uses the chain of custody requirements of the Content Claim Standard.
OCS is the voluntary certification program and is suitable for any organization i.e. large, medium and small considering improving its ethical practices and sustainability to meet the expectations of all stakeholders. OCS certification acceptability is going high day by day and mostly European customer demands OCS certification from their suppliers even it is becoming a pre-requisite of European retailers to start the business relationship with global supply chain. OCS awareness is also rising among end users of organic products even they are ready to pay some premium price against the purchase of organic products. Specially its requirement is rising in textile’s supply chain.
OCS standard is developed by Textile Exchange It is a global non profit organization. It is initially established by organic exchange in 2002. Textile exchange works closely with all sectors of textile supply network. Textile Exchange is a global non profit organization. This standard is also designed to ensure the chain of custody for preferred materials and to provide labelling tools for final product claims. Textile Exchange’s mission is to accelerate sustainable practices in the textile industry. This acceleration only happens when steps have been taken to ensure that actions taken toward sustainability result in real and meaningful change. This requires a strong understanding of the issues and a plan to substantiate the claims being made.
Textile Exchange identifies and shares best practices regarding farming, materials, processing, traceability, and product end-of-life in order to create positive impacts on water, soil, air, animals, and the human population created around the world by the textile industry. There are 210 member companies and organizations included from more than 25 countries.
Benefits of OCS Certification
- Give the access in the market of organic products
- Meet the relationship criteria of new customers
- Helpful to capture the European markets
- Get business of organic products
- Improve customer confidence
- Improve credibility
- Provide quality assurance
OCS Certification Process
After finalization of agreement with client, Quality Systems’ experts visit to client’s premises and conduct the complete gap analysis of existing system against the OCS standard and discuss the gap report to the management, identified gaps could be in documents, implementation, supply chain verification, traceability of records and products, employee’s awareness, statutory local laws compliances. We commence work according to the agreed timelines as per final gap report and proceed for the audit once all the documentation, implementation, and other requirements are done. Our technical team provides complete assistance, support and cooperation throughout the process to make certification audit successful in first attempt.
OCS certificate is not awarded once-and-for-all, it must be renewed before expiration of the certificate. After applying for the audit to the certification body, they conduct the initial audit. After the successful conduction of audit, certification body issues the certificate with validity of 01 year. After completion of one year of audit cycle re-audit will be conducted to continue the process of certification.
TC – Transaction Certificates Process
TC is the proof that confirms specific shipments from the company are OCS certified. To assure that a specific shipment of products received by a Certified Entity is OCS certified the buyer can ask the certified supplier to provide a Transaction Certificate (TC). This certificate is issued by the OCS certifier of that supplier. OCS certifier also lists the concrete products and shipment details including the buyers name with address declaring the OCS certification status of the shipped goods.
Cost of OCS Certification
Charges of OCS certification can not be flat or same for every organization, please contact us in this regard.
Why Quality Systems
Quality Systems is working with the team of qualified and experienced consultants and trainers having vast industrial experience, most of our consultants are also lead auditors who are aware to the expectations of auditors from your management system during the audit. Quality systems is assisting across the world to implement and achieve the OCS outstanding results. Our consultation methodology is highly professional, time bound and effective and we always add value to the business process of the client’s organization.
Our OCS Certification complete package comprised on following segments such as training, implementation, consultation, gap analysis, documentation, internal audits, pre assessment, third party audit through world’s most recognized & accredited by IOAS Certification body and post audit enhancement / maintenance services to enable your organization to get the best outcome of OCS. Our services are globally accepted, authoritative and benchmarked in the field of OCS audit.