3. Definitions

Within the current document, the following definitions (with their French equivalents) apply:

Accreditation
(Accréditation)

Attestation granted by a third party associated with a Conformity Assessment Body (CAB) and constituting official recognition of the CAB’s ability to carry out specific conformity evaluation activities.

Accreditation body
(Organisme d’accréditation)

Authoritative body that grants accreditation.

Note: An accreditation body’s authority usually stems from the government.

Accreditation body’s advisory services
(Prestation de conseil de la part de l’accréditeur)

Participation in the activities of a given CAB, subject to accreditation;

Examples:

• preparation or development of the CAB’s manuals or procedures
• participation in the implementation or management of the CAB’s system
• offering of specific advise or specific training for the development and implementation of the CAB’s operational procedures.

Accreditation certificate
(Certificatd'accréditation)

Official document or series of related documents stipulating that accreditation has been granted for a specific scope.

Accreditation extension
(Extension de l’accréditation)

Accreditation scope enlargement process.

Accreditation reduction
(Réduction de l’accréditation)

Process that consists in withdrawing an accreditation for part of its scope.

Accreditation scope
(Portée d’accréditation)

Specific conformity evaluation services for which accreditation is requested or has been granted.

Accreditation suspension
(Suspension de l’accréditation)

Process consisting in temporarily invalidating an accreditation for all or part of its scope.

Accreditation symbol
(Symbole d’accréditation)

Symbol issued by an accreditation body to be used by accredited CABs to indicate their accreditation body status.

Note: the term “mark” is reserved for a body’s direct conformity with a set of requirements.

Accreditation withdrawal
(Retrait de l’accréditation)

Process that consists in withdrawing an accreditation in its entirety.

Accredited certification body
(Organisme de certification accrédité)

Body for which the certification program was evaluated and deemed officially compliant with the procedures, requirements, and criteria established by the Board, or any other administrative authority with wich the Board has concluded and agreement, to manage a product certification program.

Annual report
(Rapport annuel)

Report which the accredited certifying body submits to the CARTV on an annual basis.

Appeal to a certification body
(Appel logé à l’endroit de l’organisme de certification)

Request made by a company applying for product certification or by a certifying body applying for accreditation, for reconsideration of any adverse decision made either by the certifying body regarding its certification status or by the accreditation body regarding its accreditation status.

Appeal to an Accreditation body
(Appel logé à l’endroit de l’organisme d’accreditation)

Request made by a CAB for reconsideration of any adverse decision made by the accreditation body regarding the accreditation status that the CAB requested.

Note: Adverse decisions include the refusal to accept an application, the refusal to carry out an evaluation, requests concerning corrective actions taken, changes in accreditation scope, decisions regarding refusals, suspension or withdrawal of accreditation, and any other action constituting a condition to obtain accreditation.

Approved service
(Service approuvé)

Intangible product (service) resulting from an activity carried out by a supplier on a tangible product at the request of a client ensuring the conformity of the product, and being approved by the certifier.

Assessment of a certification body
(Évaluation d’un organisme de certification)

Process implemented by an accreditation body to evaluate the competence of a CAB based on standard(s) or other identified prescriptive documents and for a specific accreditation scope.

Note: The assessment of the CAB’s competence covers all the CAB’s operations and applies to the staff’s competence, the validity of the conformity evaluation methodology, and the validity of the conformity evaluation results.

Body
(Organisme)

All the facilities and individuals with responsibilities, powers and relationships.

Note: E.g., company, business, firm, enterprise, institution, charity, independent worker, association, parties or any combinations thereof.

Certification
(Certification)

Procedure whereby a third party provides a written guarantee that a product, process or service conforms to stipulated requirements as the result of an evaluation exercise, whereby techniques or production systems, including preparation operations leading to changes to initial labelling, are evaluated as to their conformity to stipulated standards.

Certification program
(Programme de certification)

Application of a certification system to the production, processing, handling and marketing according to specific standards regarding a reserved designation.

Certification system
(Système de certification)

Set of activities based on rules governing procedures and management for the purpose of certifying products in a given category, in accordance with established standards.

Certification transfer
(Transfert de certification)

Acceptance by an accredited organization of a decision made by another organization covering the certification of products being marketed by a firm without prior examination of inspection reports and other documents having led to the initial certification of these same products.

Certified product
(Produit certifié)

Any product subjected to certification and resulting from a process, be it a tangible product intended for consumption (finished) or transformation (primary) in the form of an ingredient, and distributed by the firm responsible for ensuring that products meet and, if applicable, continue to meet requirements upon which the certification is based.

Certifying body
(Organisme de certification)

Impartial body or subdivision of an impartial body, also called conformity assessment body, which has the required ability and reliability to operate a system for certifying products within a specific accreditation scope.

Competence
(Compétence)

Demonstrated aptitude to apply knowledge and expertise.

Complaint
(Plainte)

Expression of dissatisfaction, other than that mentioned under the term “appeal,” from any individual or organization lodged with an accreditation organization and regarding the accreditation organization or accredited CAB’s operations when a response is expected.

Conformity Assessment Body (CAB)
(Organisme d'évaluation de la conformité (OEC))

Body that provides conformity evaluation services and that may be granted an accreditation.

Note: Unless otherwise stated, the term “CAB” used in this document applies to all CABs, whether they are applicants or accredited bodies.

Conformity Certificate
(Certificat de conformité)

Document issued by certifying body attesting that the listed products result from operations that are in compliance with standards prescribed in the mentioned certification program.

Conseil des appellations réservées et des termes valorisants

Organization having jurisdiction regarding compliance of products to stipulated standards pertaining to a designation (appellation) reserved by the Québec Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.

Continuous improvement
(Amélioration continue)

Regular activity to increase the capacity to meet requirements

Corrective action
(Action corrective)

Action aimed at eliminating the cause of a detected non-conformity or another undesirable situation detected.

Designation
(Appellation)

Designation of a product based either on its specificity, its production method or its geographic region.

Effectiveness
(Efficacité)

Level of achievement of planned activities and expected results.

Efficiency
(Efficience)

Relationship between the result achieved and the resources used.

Enterprise
(Enterprise)

Institutional unit that has accounting and financial autonomy and that pools resources (staff, capital, soil, raw materials and services) in order to produce goods and services and, occasionally, to distribute them. It is operated as a business by an individual or several individuals incorporated as a legal person, which, in both cases, have legal status with regards to the purpose of their business (production of a product, merchandise trade, provision of services, etc.)

Note: To carry out its operations, the enterprise manages one or several separate operation sites (owned or rented) on each of which are found one or several production units that are under its responsibility.

Evaluator
(Évaluateur)

Individual appointed by an accreditation body to evaluate a CAB alone or as a member of an evaluation team.

Expert
(Expert)

Individual appointed by an accreditation body to contribute knowledge or expertise within the context of the accreditation scope to be evaluated.

Interested parties
(Parties intéressés)

Parties with a direct or indirect interest in certification.

Note: Direct interest refers to the interest of parties that are subject to accreditation; indirect interest refers to the interest of parties that use or trust accredited conformity evaluation services.

Inspection
(Inspection)

Visit to production sites to verify the compliance with standards of systems and operations, which result in the certification of products.

Inspection Plan
(Plan de contrôle)

Measures planned in the certifying body’s quality manual to evaluate the operations that result in products, which will, in turn, be subjected to a certification application.

Inspector
(Inspecteur)

Person assigned by the certification program to conduct inspections.

License
(Licence)

Document issued in conformity with rules of a certification system, by which a certifying body grants a company the right to use its mark of conformity and/or its issued certificate, whether on the firm's advertising, labelling or product presentation, or in commercial documents referring to it, owing total respect to the conditions set in the contract signed between both parties.

Manager
(Directeur)

Employee of the Conseil des appelllations réservées et des termes valorisants who is responsible for administering the accreditation program.

Mark of certification
(Marque de certification)

Mark vouching for the certification control of a product, with a mandatory mention of the certifying body’s name, and an optional logo of the certification program.

Mark of compliance
(Marque de conformité)

Mark vouching that a product or service produced by a system complies with established norms. A trademark or mark of certification may vouch for this compliance.

Non-conformity
(Non-conformité)

The deviation of a product from standard requirements, or (if the product’s certification system includes evaluating the supplier’s management system) the absence or inability to implement or to maintain one or many elements required for this management system, or a situation, depending on the availability of objective evidence, that is likely to raise a significant doubt regarding the conformity of a product that a supplier put on sale. A non-conformity that qualifies as a minor deviation should not raise such doubt if considered in isolation.

Operation site
(site d’opération)

Site of a firm (operator) in a precise geographic location, and using land and installations to supply products of a given type. Each operation site must be subject to a specific on-site inspection. Therefore, a farm and maple grove, even if spatially adjoined, are two different operation sites that will require inspections at different times in the year. An operation site could include one or many production units.

Operator
(Exploitant)

Company (legal entity) that produces or processes, under its own name or that of others, or that has produced or processed by others under its own name, agricultural and food products of or aiming at production methods compliant with certification standards, and using a reserved designation (appellation) within its advertising, labelling, or in its commercial packaging or in documentation referring to it, for the purposes of subsequent marketing. The operator’s activities can be held in one or many operation sites under its supervision.

Organization
(Organisation)

All the responsibilities, powers and relationships between individuals.

Prevention
(Prévention)

All the preventive actions against certain risks (non-standardized concept).

Preventive action
(Action préventive)

Action aimed at eliminating the cause of a possible non-conformity or another potentially undesirable situation.

Principal auditor
(Responsible d’évaluation)

Evaluator who has the overall responsibility of specified evaluation activities.

Product
(Produit)

Result of a process.

Note: The use of the word “product” may also mean “service,” “software,” “material product” or “product derived from continuous processes.”

Product evaluation
(Évaluation d’un produit)

Process, including a set of examination and inspection measures used by a certifying body to insure conformity of operations, from which come the final products to be considered when applying for certification.

Production unit
(unité de production)

Area with clear spatial delimitations, part of an operation site used by a firm to produce a farmed product or kind of food related to a specific type of operation. The production unit normally includes:

1. In crop production, one or many fields close to each other;
2. In animal production, livestock buildings and pastures;
3. In maple production, buildings and maple grove;
4. In aquacultural production, a pool or pond and the land surrounding it;
5. For food production, the factory with its land and buildings.

Quality
(Qualité)

Ability of a set of intrinsic characteristics to meet requirements.

Quality control
(Maîtrise de la qualité)

Area of quality management that focuses on the fulfillment of quality requirements.

Quality management
(Management de la qualité)

Coordinated activities to guide and control a body’s quality, including:

• Establishment of a quality policy and quality objectives;
• Quality planning;
• Quality assurance; and
• Quality improvement.

Québec Reference Standards
(Normes de référence du Québec)

Basis making up the requirements used by the CARTV accredited bodies to certify products bearing a designation that has been reserved by Québec’s Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.

Recertification
(Recertification)

Acceptance by a certifying body of a decision made by another certifying body regarding a certified product, based on a document review and an analysis of the product’s inspection report.

Rectification
(Rectification)

Action intended to eliminate a detected non-conformity.

Review
(Revue)

Examination carried out to determine the relevance, appropriateness and effectiveness of what is being examined in order to meet specific objectives.

Note: The review may also examine efficiency.

Supplier
(Fournisseur)

Party who has the responsibility to ensure that products comply or continue to comply with requirements on which certification is based. In this document, the words supplier and operator are used interchangeably and generally refer to a company.

Surveillance
(Surveillance)

All the activities, other than re-evaluation, to ensure that the CAB continues to meet accreditation requirements.

Note: Monitoring includes on-site supervisory assessments and other monitoring activities such as:

1. information requests concerning accreditation sent to the CAB by the accreditation organization;
2. an analysis of the CAB’s statements regarding its accreditation;
3. requests sent to the CAB concerning the provision of documents and records (for example: audit reports, results from internal quality control in order to verify the validity of the CAB’s services, the registering of complaints, and reports on management reviews);
4. monitoring of the CAB’s performance (such as the results from participation in aptitude tests).

Tangible evidence
(Preuve tangible)

Information that demonstrates the existence or truthfulness of something.

Third party
(Tierce partie)

Person or body recognized as independent from the concerned parties in relation to a specific matter.

Trademark
(Marque de commerce)

Mark belonging to one or more enterprises used to distinguish marketed goods in the eye of the consumer. These enterprises are responsible for complying with currently applicable regulations and standards.

Transaction certificate
(Certificat de transaction)

Document attesting to the organic certification of a specific batch of products within a commercial transaction framework.

Validation
(Validation)

Confirmation, through tangible evidence, that requirements for a specific use or application have been met.

Verification
(Vérification)

Confirmation, through tangible evidence, that requirements have been met.

Verification agent
(Agent de vérification)

Person assigned by the certification body to inspect an operation site of a business applying for certification or renewal

Acronyms used in this document

• CFIA: Canadian Food Inspection Agency
• CARTV: Conseil des appellations réservées et des termes valorisants
• EU: European Union
• IAF: International Accreditation Forum
• NOP: National Organic Program
• USDA: United States Department of Agriculture
• JAS: Japan Agricultural Services