JAS

Certification According to the New Japanese Agricultural Standard (JAS) for Organic Products

- An introduction -

Remark: CERES – CERtification of Environmental Standards GmbH – is an organic certifier accredited by the competent Japanese authority (MAFF = Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries), as a ROCB (= Registered Overseas Certification Body for Organic JAS.

1. What is organic production according to JAS?

Organic production for the Japanese market, as part of the new Japanese Agricultural Standards (JAS) is regulated by the following standards, criteria (in the form of Notifications) and FAQs of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery (MAFF), all from year 2005:

Standards: JAS for Organic …

… Agricultural Products (No. 1605)
… Processed Foods (No. 1606)
… Livestock Products (No. 1607)
… Feeds (No. 1608)

Technical Criteria: Criteria for Production Process Manager: Technical Criteria for Certifying Production Process Managers of Organic …

… Agricultural Products and Feeds (No. 1830)
… Processed Foods and Processed Feeds (No. 1831)
… Livestock Products (No. 1832)
... Criteria for Re-Packer: Technical Criteria for Certifying Re-Packers of Organic Agricultural
Products, Processed Foods, Feeds, Livestock Products (No. 1833)

FAQs: The Answers to some 130 frequently asked questions give detailed explanations with regard to the implementation of the Organic JAS rules, where the standards and technical criteria lack precision. Its latest version was published in January 2006 in English.

The accomplishment of JAS is supervised by the Dept. of Standards and Labeling of the MAFF.

The English version of JAS was published at: http://www.maff.go.jp/soshiki/syokuhin/hinshitu/e_label/index.htm At this site, go to "Organic" (under "Specific JAS", on the left side).

2. Differences with EU regulation and NOP

Some differences between Organic JAS and the EU regulation and NOP Final Rule are:

Unlike EU regulation and NOP, Notification 1605 allows the use of potassium chloride (KCl) from non-synthetic sources.
Unlike EU regulation and NOP, Notification 1605 does not allow the use of alkaline extracts of humic acids
Unlike EU regulation and NOP, Notification 1831 explicitly mentions that in processing of organic food operators must "maintain superior quality of the raw material and the products".
The main difference, however, is that JAS puts the staff of an organic operation into the center of its attention. It requires a formally established "Grading Management". This must be understood as an internal auditing system, established in order to best assure compliance with the standard. While the Operation's Manager ("Production Process Manager") performs the organic operation and is responsible for the detailed recording, the so-called Grading Manager supervises mainly the documentation. Before labeling the product and selling it to another company or directly exporting it to Japan, the Grading Manager goes through all relevant documents, in order to verify the compliance of the product to be labelled under Organic JAS. For each lot, this grading procedure must be documented on a checklist as part of the grading process. At least once a year, by June 30^th, a summary of the grading activites must be reporting to the certification body.
Organic exports to Japan must be labeled with the so-called JAS mark. The label is composted of the name of the certification body and the JAS symbol of clouds and a leave (see on the top right of this document). There is only one exception to this rule: Rather than the exporter, the Japanese importer may attach a JAS label, but this procedures is to be negociated in advance.
All Production managers and all grading staff must attend a JAS seminar, organized by an approved certifcation body, prior to inspection.

3. Who needs to be certified

Due to the agreement on equivalence of Organic JAS with several countries including the 15 old EU member countries and excluding those, which joined the EU since 2004 and the USA, only the final handler of a product needs to be JAS certified, if he is already EU respectively NOP certified. In countries with no equivalency agreement, all operators involved in the chain of production must be JAS certified. Farmer groups can be certified as such, if they have an internal control system. A processing or export company can take care of the internal control system and grading procedure of their group of suppliers.

Exporters, who do not process, pack or label themselves, need not be JAS certified.

Other countries with JAS equivalence agreements are Argentina, Australia, New Zealand (March 2007) and Switzerland.

Any equivaleny agreement covers plant production and processing. It does not cover livestock production nor feed.

4. Formal steps required to obtain and maintain JAS certification

For general steps to organic certification, please see our "Brief information: Steps to Certification". Here, we only describe steps, which are specific to JAS.

As a first step, the interested producer has to submit a JAS application form to CERES (different forms for farms, producer groups, for processors and re-packers).
The production manager attends a JAS seminar organized by CERES.
The company, farm or group must describe their Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) including the grading procedure (see above No. 2; we have worked out some examples for farms, farmer groups and processors, also see No. 5 below).
Independent from the current certification status (no organic certification at all, valid EU- or NOP-certification, etc.) an onsite JAS-inspection has to take place, to verify the implementation of your SOP (at CERES we call it the OMP, see "Brief info: Steps to Organic Certification") and the grading SOP, and the fulfillment of JAS standards, before the certificate can be issued.
CERES evaluates the SOPs, the Grading SOPs, and the inspection report and if necessary, clarifies open questions with the responsible inspector respectively with the applicant.
Once all requirements are fulfilled, CERES will issue a JAS certificate. Together with the certificate the unit will receive the CERES "JAS mark" (see below No. 7). A JAS certification remains valid but has to be renewed annually.
All JAS certified operators have to inform the inspection body annually about the organic JAS grading conducted. The reference year is the Japanese economic year (April 1^st through March 31^st). The summarized information for the previous year must be submitted to the certifier by June 30^th. Recertification is not possible if this information is not submitted in time.

5. Details of the Grading System

Grading involves two parts:

Supervision of the production process. We call this part "continuous supervision".
Prior to authorizing the use of the JAS seal, the person in charge (the Grading Manager) checks, if for the respective lot that the internal SOPs were followed. The result of this verification has to be documented in a checklist which has to be filed>We call this the "final grading". The grading records have to be stored for at least three years.

The unit that applies for certification has to name a grading manager. Organic JAS establishes detailed criteria concerning qualification and/or experience of the grading manager. In groups or bigger companies, the grading manager (grading director) may have assistants (grading staff). It is most important that the grading director respectively the grading manager is independent from the sales department of an undertaking. This should be documented to the certification body during application process.

A typical final grading process works as follows:

* Not always is the seal (JAS mark) placed last. In many systems, the product arrives already with the seal. In this case, the grading manager verifies, whether the seal has the required characteristics. If the product does not comply, the grading manager makes sure that the seal is taken off the product and packages or the product is put in another container, without JAS mark.

6. Documents required for JAS certification

ADDITIONAL records required for JAS certification, besides those, which are necessary according to EU regulation or NOP:

Application for JAS certification
JAS seminar attendance certificate
SOPs for JAS grading
Grading checklist, showing that these SOPs are being implemented for each lot sold with JAS mark
Records summarizing the products sold with JAS mark by June 30^th

7. Labeling requirements

All products sold as "JAS organic", must carry the JAS mark. Together with the certificate, CERES will provide its clients an electronic version of the JAS-CERES seal. If the products are shipped to Japan in bags, the JAS seal must be on each bag, or a JAS seal tag must be attached to each bag. If the product is shipped in bulk containers, the JAS seal must appear on the invoice or bill of lading. It is recommended that the seal appears both on the bulk products and the shipping documents. If the official shipping document cannot be altered, a page bearing the JAS seal can be attached. The JAS certified repacker in Japan will repack the product and put the JAS seal on the new packaging.

Details of the seal: It must be used exactly in the form, which was approved by the MAFF, and may not be altered. Any colour is permitted. The position of the JAS mark is not regulated by MAFF/ JAS. You may use the JAS seal in advertising material.

Further information on the label: The label must include information on the kind of product, the organic condition, quantities, the company or farm name, a lot number and the country of origin.

8. Issuance of Transaction Certificates

JAS recommends the use transaction certificates (TCs) to be issued by certification bodies, but it is not seen as a mandatory requirement

Standard Inspection Program for JAS

All relevant aspects have been integrated into the general Standard Inspection Programs of CERES. Please shift to the respective area of operation in order to study the Standard Inspection Programs there: