USDA Organic and Hemp/CBD Certification Options
Hemp and CBD producers sometimes assume that organic certification and safety certification are interchangeable, or that having one covers the other. They do not overlap, and understanding the difference helps producers build a certification strategy that actually covers what regulators, retailers, and customers expect.
What USDA Organic Certification Confirms
USDA Organic Industrial Hemp Certification addresses how a crop is grown: the inputs used, prohibited substances avoided, and the agricultural practices followed to meet USDA’s organic standards. It is a certification about growing method, tied to USDA’s National Organic Program.
What PJRFSI’s Hemp Safety Certification Confirms
PJRFSI’s Hemp Safety Standards for Cultivation and Manufacturing address something different: whether an operation’s food safety and quality management systems, covering traceability, sanitation, worker hygiene, testing procedures, and recall readiness, meet Good Agricultural and Collection Practices or Good Manufacturing Practices requirements. A crop or product can be grown organically and still need a documented safety and quality system behind it, and vice versa: a safety-certified operation is not automatically an organic one.
Why Producers Often Need Both
For hemp and CBD producers marketing to retailers or consumers who care about both attributes, organic certification and safety certification serve complementary purposes. Organic certification supports an organic label claim. Safety certification supports the underlying claim that matters to every buyer regardless of growing method: that the product was produced under a documented, audited quality system, with appropriate testing behind it.
Where to Start
If you are pursuing USDA Organic Industrial Hemp Certification, PJRFSI’s Hemp Cultivation and Hemp Manufacturing cGMP certifications can run alongside that process rather than in place of it. Contact PJRFSI to discuss how the two fit together for your specific operation.
PJRFSI Cannabis and Hemp Safety Certification: system-level GACP and cGMP certification backed by decades of food safety auditing experience.
Ready to get started?
Call PJRFSI today at 1-855-757-7374 to discuss certification for your operation.
