Glyphosate Residue Free

Glyphosate Residue Free certification has been created for:

• Single ingredients from suppliers
• Single-ingredient food products (products sold to consumers)
• Multi-ingredient food products (products sold to consumers)

If you are food manufacturer and all of your ingredient suppliers are certified Glyphosate Residue Free you can automatically receive Glyphosate Residue Free certification without the product testing steps listed below. You will only have to sign the certification agreement and pay the annual certification fee.

If your ingredient suppliers are not certified Glyphosate Residue Free you need to follow our full certification process for your product(s) – see below:

1. You Apply for Certification using our Registration Form – Provide basic information of your company and product (including official ingredients list or program details).
2. We put you in touch with a third-party ISO 17025 accredited laboratory to test your product(s) confidentially for glyphosate residues. You can also select a laboratory for testing your product/s, as long as they meet our laboratory standards (which can be viewed in our FAQs section above).
3. You send your product to be tested by the third-party ISO 17025 accredited laboratory using liquid chromatography or gas chromatography methods. The estimated costs for this are $200 per product.
4. The laboratory prepares a confidential report on the Glyphosate levels in your product.
5. You send us testing results within 5 business days of receiving them from the laboratory – We confidentially evaluate them in order to determine compliance with our Standard.
6. We send you our Certification Decision.
7. If your certification is accepted we send you the certification agreement to fill in and sign. You pay us $1499 in total for the certification upon signing the agreement (this annual price is a flat rate fee and covers certification for as many products as you wish to certify). If you own multiple brands each brand requires a separate certification.
8. During the year we will send you product testing requests at least twice more. In total third-party laboratory testing will cost an estimated $600 for each of your products per year, however if you have many products we will work with you to format a cost-effective testing protocol.
9. All certified products are included in The Detox Project certified product database.
10. Maintaining Certification: Certificates are valid for one year – Annual testing is required to maintain your certification (minimum 2 times per year + spot checks). If there are less than 3 lots produced of a specific product per year then only one sample from each lot will have to be tested.

Introduction

The Glyphosate Residue Free certification programs (the “Program”) has been established to:

• Reduce Consumers’ risk of exposure to glyphosate residues in foods they consume;
• Educate Producers about the glyphosate residue profile of their products;
• Enable Producers to fine-tune production and supply chain strategies to minimize reliance on glyphosate-based herbicides
• Encourage farmers to reduce their reliance on glyphosate-based herbicides

Purpose of the Standard

The Standard:

• Describes the certification framework and testing requirements applicable to products certified as Glyphosate Residue Free (“Certified Products”); and
• Provides guidance for public claims made in connection with Certified Products, either on or off product.

Intended Users of the Standard

The Standard is intended to be used by ingredient suppliers and food and supplement manufacturers interested in having products certified under the Program, as well as farmers and value chain handlers and purchasers of Certified Products.

Handlers including distributors, wholesalers, importers, and food processors and manufacturers.

Purchasers of Certified Products include food manufacturers, grocers, restaurants, consumers and institutional buyers.

Voluntary Standard

This Standard is voluntary and nonbinding. It is not intended to replace the legal or regulatory requirements of any country in which agricultural products or food products are produced, handled, or sold.

Food Manufacturers participating in the Program are not ultimately required to utilize the Glyphosate Residue Free certification mark on Certified Products.

Scope

This Standard applies to food products and ingredients submitted for assessment to determine whether they can be certified as Glyphosate Residue Free.

Program Applicant Submissions

As a prerequisite for assessment, Farmers / Ingredient Suppliers / Food Manufacturers / Supplement Manufacturers / Producers are required to submit a Program Application Form and supporting documents alongside the third-party laboratory results for glyphosate testing of product samples tested for certification purposes. Required supporting documents may include, but are not necessarily limited to the following:

• Signed Glyphosate Residue Free services agreement
• Ingredients List Disclosure

Conformance Requirements for Certified Products

In order for a food product or ingredient to be certified Glyphosate Residue Free:

• A representative sample of an identified Product or Ingredient must be collected and sent by the Producer to the agreed third-party laboratory for analysis in accordance with Program sampling requirements three (3) times a year and increasing from that number depending on the number of product lots produced. If there are less than three (3) lots produced of a specific product per year then only one sample from each lot will have to be tested.
• The sample must be laboratory tested by a qualified third-party laboratory (if accepted) in accordance with the Program testing requirements (using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) methods); and
• Test results must show that the product contains no detected glyphosate residue down to the limits of detection (LOD) based on government-accepted limit-of-detection protocols for food products – usually 0.01 parts per million (ppm) and always below the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s and other government’s Maximum Residue Levels (MRLs).
• Glyphosate Residue Free certification testing is based on government-accepted limit-of-detection protocols for food products.

The product name is clearly stated on the Certificate issued upon certification. The owner of the Program is not responsible for, or supportive of claims made by the client pertaining to Products that are not listed on the Certificate.

Limit of Detection

The “limit of detection (LOD)” is the level below which a laboratory cannot confirm the presence of a specific residue in a given sample. LODs for international pesticide residue free certification standards are established in accordance with U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) PAM II validated methods / protocols for pesticides and other international government validated methods / protocols. Currently the LOD used by qualifying third-party laboratories while testing samples for Glyphosate Residue Free certification is 0.01 ppm, or the lowest possible LOD for a specific sample, if this is higher than 0.01 ppm but lower than government maximum residue levels. The 0.01 ppm LOD is recognized as the internationally accepted LOD for widely used validated methods for pesticide analysis (including glyphosate analysis) in food, commodity and supplement samples.

Duration of Certification

Once a Product has been successfully certified, the certification shall remain in effect for one calendar year, unless the certification is suspended or revoked in accordance with the provision ‘Revocation or Suspension’ below or under the contract provision which enables the owner of the Program to cancel certification 6 months after your Certificate of Compliance is sent via e-mail, for any reason.

As a quality control measure, Certified Products may be spot retested at any time. The results of spot retests will remain confidential and will only be released to the Producer of the retested Certified Product/s.

Revocation or Suspension.

A certification will be placed under review or suspended or revoked if any of the following conditions exist:

• Glyphosate residues are found at any point during or following the certification process to exceed the requirements for certification, until such time that conformance is reestablished;
• A food manufacturer / ingredient producer is unwilling or unable to correct observed discrepancies;
• A food manufacturer / ingredient producer is unwilling or unable to meet financial or contractual arrangements;
• A food manufacturer / ingredient producer is intentionally misusing the Glyphosate Residue Free certification mark; or
• A food manufacturer / ingredient producer is intentionally violating any program requirements.

Product Integrity and Traceability

The Producer of a Certified Product is required to:

• Demonstrate the ability to recall Glyphosate Residue Free certified products if glyphosate residues are found after certification, if compliance is not reestablished as per the Protocol for Conformance Infringements; and
• Demonstrate the ability to prevent comingling and contamination of Certified Products with non-certified products.

Use of Glyphosate Residue Free Certification Mark

The Producer of a Certified Product is permitted to use the Glyphosate Residue Free certification marks in connection with the Certified Product, either directly on product labels, signage and other point-of-sale materials, or indirectly in websites, brochures, and other printed and online collateral.

If the Glyphosate Residue Free certified product is sold in a country or territory which requires a labeling language other than English, the words “This product is certified Glyphosate Residue Free” should be translated accordingly and placed on the packaging with the English Glyphosate Residue Free certification mark.

The Producer of a Certified Product must include the following statement alongside the certification mark either off or on product in a viewable location (e.g. producer’s website or packaging): “Based on government limit of detection protocols and default Maximum Residue Limits (MRLs), which are usually 10 parts per billion (ppb) for all pesticides”.