Information on voluntary Certification - Foodcert India

43on-farm production was developed by modifying concepts of international standardswith 3 levels of certification. Level 1 is pesticide-residue safe; Level 2 is pesticideresiduesafe and pest free, and level 3 is pesticide-residue safe, pest free and withpremium quality.What are the main requirements?The standard defines eight control points, their requirements and how toinspect them. These control points are: water source, cultivation site, useof agricultural hazardous substances, product storage and on-sitetransportation, data records, production for disease and pest-freeproducts, management of quality agricultural production and harvestingand post-harvest handling. The first five control points are required for Level 1;control points 1 to 6 for Level 2, and all eight control points for Level 3certification.How to get certified?The scheme is voluntary and managed by the government. The NationalBureau of Agricultural Commodity and Food Standards (ACFS) is theaccreditation body, while the Department of Agriculture providescertification and implementation functions. Farmers submit theirapplication form and relevant documents to their local Office ofAgricultural Research and Development (OARD) which carries out theinspection. The farmer is informed of the results of the inspection and isgiven a number of days to detail how any corrective action will be taken.The GAP Inspection Form is then submitted to the OARD board, whichreviews and presents it to the Sub-committee on GAP certification. Thissub-committee compiles and submits the information to the Committee onFood Safety Management which then issues the GAP certificate.