1. Obligatory Requirements for Using Organic Designations

1.1 Products Requiring Organic Certification

1.1.1 All tangible products resulting from organic agriculture and falling under the scope of these CARTV standards must be subjected to certification leading to a compliance certificate being issued by an accredited certifier. The certificate must be issued to the firm responsible for these production or processing operations. All products containing at least 70% organic ingredients (excluding water and salt) must be certified.

1.1.2 Potable water (H₂O) and salt (NaCl) are not considered certifiable products, given that their molecular compositions are essentially identical in nature to those substances.

1.2 Products Requiring Verification by an Accredited Certifier

1.2.1 Food products containing less than 70% organic ingredients (except water and salt) must be subjected to verification by a certification body. The latter must issue a certificate to the operator confirming that the organic ingredients in its product have been "verified," and this under condition that each organic ingredient must only be in an organic format.

1.2.2 Before food products containing 70% or more organic ingredients be considered for an ingredient verification certificate instead of an organic compliance certificate, the CARTV Standards Committee in its response to an application submitted for this purpose must have declared that this same product could not be granted an organic compliance certificate because "it would be impossible to prepare this in a manner compliant with these organic preparation standards, given the status of currently available technology".

1.3 Products Requiring Approval by an Accredited Certifier

1.3.1 Inputs, substances that by nature are neither agricultural nor food products and are used in the organic production process, yet do not remain in the resulting products (e.g.: manure), must be approved by an accredited certifier and may be granted a certificate confirming that they have been "approved for organic agriculture or organic processing." The labeling, advertising and commercial documents relating to these inputs must meet the regulations stipulated in Section 9.5.1 of these standards.

1.3.2 Services (intangible products) including activities carried out by a supplier, at the request of a client, in order to fulfill one step in the total production of a tangible product in order to ensure or to maintain its organic integrity, must be approved by a accredited certifier, if the said tangible product is subject to certification. The service provider may obtain a certificate from the certifier confirming that the services offered have been "approved for organic... (identification of type of service) ". Advertising and commercial documents related to the description of these services must meet regulations as stipulated in Section 9.5.1 of these standards.

1.3.3 Slaughtering services for organic animals, except for cutting, must be subjected to a protocol of agreement between the user and the company providing these services, whenever the company holds no approval certificate issued by an accredited certifying body. The contents of this protocol must comply with the requirements contained in Article 6.10.5.

1.4 Certifiable Products Exempted from Certification

1.4.1 In 2004 and until further notice, only prepared and cooked dishes destined for direct service to consumers in individual portions (ready-to-serve) at locations designated for this purpose and being sold under the claim they are organic, are not subject to certification. On the other hand, enterprises responsible for producing them must use organic ingredients at all times and at every step in their preparation, and be able to demonstrate this to persons authorized to carry out their verification.

1.4.2 If they wish, those enterprises mentioned in 1.4.1 may obtain an organic compliance certificate for the organic dishes that they serve.

1.5 Enterprises Obliged to Apply for Certification of Their Products

1.5.1 Every individual or corporate entity that carries out on certifiable agricultural and food products (as mentioned in Section 1.1), those operations likened to the production of or even the preparation of, in accordance with the terms defined in Section 2 of this document (Definition and Terms), shall obtain an organic compliance certificate from an accredited certifier for these products, before making them available for sale and when claiming that their contents are partially or completely organic.

1.5.2 Any enterprise that acquires from a supplier products already certified, and then proceeds to break them down or reconstitute them in order to make them available for sale after having changed the labeling.

1.5.3 Enterprises need only request certification for products being sold under their own business or corporate name, and when applicable, under one or more trademarks to which they hold the rights. If operations carried out by an enterprise affect a product to be marketed by a different enterprise instead, and under a trademark for which it holds no rights, under permission granted by a subcontracting agreement, the enterprise responsible for the product and whose name appears on the label may request certification, instead of the supplier. On the other hand, if it is the supplier of the product that requests certification, there must be an agreement between the certifier and the enterprise selling the product under its own brand. The content of such an agreement must comply with requirements set out in the CARTV Directive No 2.

1.6 Enterprises Exempted from the Requirement of Certifying Their Products

1.6.1 Enterprises that sell certified agricultural and food products displaying the "organic" designation are exempted from obtaining an organic compliance certificate:

1.6.2 Enterprises such as restaurants, caterers, etc. are also exempt from having products certified, until further notice, when it concerns the dishes mentioned in Section 1.4.