2. Purpose and Scope

Although not limited to these, the accreditation is specifically addressed to bodies carrying out one or more programs for which the goal is to certify agricultural products or foodstuffs corresponding with any one of the following categories:

1. They carry or are intended to carry descriptive labelling that refers to a reserved designation or to added-value claims, as recognized or authorized by Québec’s Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food when they are produced in Québec and are intended for sale in that province.
2. They carry or are intended to carry “organic” labelling when produced in Québec and intended for sale within the United States.
3. They carry or are intended to carry labelling referring to organic production methods and bear the “Organic Canada” and “Canada Organic” labels and any other associated mark (as of December 14th, 2008), insofar as they are intended for sale within Canada.

The evaluation leading to the accreditation of a certifier is carried out according to a reference manual corresponding to the desired designation or added-value claim and, for all applicants, according to the accreditation criteria of the CARTV or any other administrative authority with which the Board has concluded an agreement, as set out in general requirements in the ISO/IEC Guide 65:1996 regarding bodies involved in product certification, to which additional requirements have been adopted by the CARTV to adapt the criteria to the agricultural production and food manufacturing sector.

Accreditation granted to a certifier by the Board or any administrative authority with which the Board has signed an agreement means the latter, being a responsible and qualified third party, has the financial and organizational capacity to manage a certification program that will result in consistent and credible decisions.

The scope of the accreditation granted by the CARTV specifies the one or more fields of certification for which the certifying body is accredited, and also the regions within which the body may carry out its activities within the framework of this accreditation.

The accreditation is valid for five years, and the body must reapply and again be granted accreditation by the Board once this period has ended.

Participation in the CARTV accreditation program is not intended to prevent certifying bodies from carrying out other business activities, including those involving the certification of agricultural foods and products not covered by Québec's reserved designations. However, operations resulting from these other activities should neither constitute an infringement nor result in conflicts of interest with a certification program included in the scope of the accreditation granted by the Board.