VERIFICATION REGULATIONS

The 4C Unit Self-Assessment is made up of four major steps:
4C VERIFICATION REGULATIONS
VERSION 2.1 | APRIL 2016
Self-assessing (all or sampled) individual Business Partners and the Managing Entity
against the applicable principles of the 4C Code of Conduct
see section 7.11 Internal
Management System (IMS)
Consolidating the results of the above individual Self-Assessments
Assessing the consolidated results in relation to the defined IMS level - see 7.11 Internal
Management System (IMS).
4C Verification is conducted using a risk-based approach, in which 4C Verifiers select a sample of
Business Partners who are judged to have a greater risk of not complying with the 4C Code of Conduct.
4C Units may wish to use the same risk-based approach for Self-Assessment, although it is
recommendable to conduct a Self-Assessment of all Business Partners to avoid wasting time and
resources on failed verifications. Details of risk-based sampling are set out in section 8.3 Preparation
for verification by Verifiers.
Within a verification cycle (Self-Assessment Initial Verification annual Self-Assessment Reverification
after three years), 4C Units must make sure that the Self-Assessment of individual Business
Partners and the Managing Entity is done at least once during harvest time.
To maintain their licensed status, after verification, 4C Units must carry out a Self-Assessment on
annual basis. The same process with four major steps of Self-Assessment is repeated. If Selfthe
initial verification and improvement progress as risk factors to decide on the sample for annual
Self-Assessment.
The aggregated results are then sent to Coffee Assurance Services together with other required
documents.
Verification: The aggregated Self-Assessment of the entire 4C Unit will be used by verifiers during
verification and for concluding any findings, observations or risks. Where available, verifiers will ask for
and use the Self-Assessment of individual Business Partners when visiting them and verifying their
practices. Verifiers use the same sets of indicators (for UAPs, Code principles and IMS) to determine the
accuracy of the aggregated Self-Assessment.
10.4.5 Average yellow performance by 4C Units
Requirement: After excluding the 10 UAPs, 4C Units MUST reach the minimum average yellow
performance in Self-Assessment on an aggregated level. Only then can they undergo the initial
verification.
Guidance: This requirement applies to the initial verification. For re-verification, requirements are set in
section 7.7 Continuous Improvement by 4C Units.
The average yellow performance indicates that 4C Units have implemented the 4C Code of Conduct
and related requirements and are now ready for verification.
For each 4C Code principle, there are indicators for 4C Units to determine how they perform
green,
end of each indicator.
performance level of that criterion, 4C Units must achieve all indicators within that criterion. If the 4C
Unit does not achieve all the indicators of that criterion, the next lower performance level will be
considered. For criterion with indicators grouped together by
indicators must be met.
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