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Agricultural Marketing Service Room 2648 South Building Effective Date: May 12, 2016

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Procedure: 

Peer Review of National Organic Program (NOP) Accreditation 

1. Purpose and Scope

The National Organic Program (NOP) is establishing a peer review process to implement the 

peer review section (7 CFR 205.509) of the USDA organic regulations. This instruction 

describes the procedures for a peer review process to evaluate the U.S. Department of 

Agriculture (USDA) accreditation program. 

2. Background

Section 205.509 of the USDA organic regulations requires the USDA Agricultural Marketing 

Service (AMS) Administrator to establish a panel pursuant to the Federal Advisory Committee 

Act (FACA) to conduct peer reviews of the NOP’s accreditation process and decisions. To 

satisfy the requirements of § 205.509, the NOP has in the past contracted with third-party 

auditing organizations to conduct peer reviews. The NOP contracted with the American National 

Standards Institute (ANSI) in 2005 and 2014, and with the National Institute of Standards and 

Technology (NIST) in 2010. During the last few years, foreign governments have also conducted 

peer reviews of the NOP: the European Commission in 2010, the Canadian Food Inspection 

Agency in 2011 and 2013, and both South Korea and the European Commission in 2014.

A 2010 Office of the Inspector General (OIG) audit of the NOP found that using third-party 

review organizations to conduct peer reviews does not satisfy the requirement for a peer review 

panel described in § 205.509 of the regulations. The OIG recommended that the NOP either form 

a peer review panel in accordance with the regulations or change the regulations. 

The NOP is establishing a peer review panel to satisfy OFPA requirements regarding peer review 

of certifying agents.

3. Policy and Procedures

A peer review panel will be established to evaluate the NOP’s policies, processes and procedures 

for conformance to ISO/IEC 17011:2001 Conformity Assessment – General requirements for 

accreditation bodies accrediting conformity assessment bodies, which replaced ISO/IEC Guide 

61, and the accreditation procedures in subpart F of the USDA organic regulations. The panel

will report its findings in writing to the NOP Deputy Administrator and the National Organic 

Standards Board (NOSB). The findings will be considered part of the NOP quality management 

system, and the Deputy Administrator will make corrective actions to the NOP accreditation 

processes as necessary and appropriate. The panel’s findings will neither bind the NOP to take 

any action nor affect the NOP’s decisions. The findings will be published and presented at public 

meetings of the National Organic Standards Board.
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a) Peer Review Procedure

1. Contract with assessment body. AMS will contract with a peer assessment body to 

coordinate and manage the peer review panel. 

2. Select peer review panel. The peer assessment body, in consultation with the NOP 

Deputy Administrator, will select the peer review panel for each peer review 

assessment effort. 

a. The panel will include at least three individuals, at least two of which are not 

employees of the Department of Agriculture. 

b. All members must have knowledge of or experience with ISO/IEC 17011 or 

conformity assessment activities.

c. All members of the panel must sign a confidentiality statement to not copy, 

disclose, or distribute any documents they review as part of their participation 

on the panel. 

d. At least two members must have expertise in organic production and handling 

methods. 

e. At the discretion of the NOP Deputy Administrator, a current or ex officio 

member of the NOSB may be selected to augment the panel in an ex officio 

capacity, if and when the member is free from conflicts of interest as defined 

by the Secretary, to function as a conduit to the NOSB about panel activities. 

f. A staff member of the NOP Accreditation Division (AD) will provide support 

for the panel. This person will be responsible for selecting, redacting, copying, 

assembling, and distributing copies of documents for panel review.

3. Select a representative sample of accreditation decisions. The panel will select at least 

three, but not more than five, samples from final accreditation decisions rendered by 

the NOP. 

a. The decisions subject to sampling will be those signed during the 12 months 

immediately preceding the date of the panel’s first organizational meeting.

b. The date of the accreditation decisions to be considered for sampling will be 

the date on which the NOP Deputy Administrator signed the decision. 

c. The samples may be selected randomly or as individual items of interest at the 

discretion of the peer review panel. If only three or fewer decisions were 

issued during the prior 12 months, then all the decisions will be selected for 

review.

d. If possible, panel members should select accreditation decisions for at least 

one large, one medium, and one small certifier for review. This is not,

however, a mandatory requirement. The selection of sample decisions is at the 

panel’s complete discretion. 

e. In addition to the above files, select additional files will be reviewed if 

necessary to ensure that each of the following type of file is sampled (if such 

activities were conducted during the sampling period): 

i. Initial accreditation of a certifier; 

ii. Renewal of accreditation of a certifier; 

iii. Surveillance (routine or directed) of a certifier; 

iv. Suspension of accreditation of a certifier; 
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v. Revocation (withdrawal) of accreditation of a certifier; 

vi. Amendment of scope of accreditation of a certifier; 

vii. Appeal of proposed adverse action(s) against a certifier; and 

viii. Audits and resulting decisions in response to formal complaints filed 

against a certifier.

f. Files with allegations of wrongdoing by a certifier that may be the subject of 

investigations beyond the scope of the NOP accreditation process should not 

be selected. 

4. Prepare NOP accreditation process documents for review by the panel. A staff 

member of the AD will assemble all relevant NOP AD procedural documents for 

review by the panel, including findings and corrective actions from past peer reviews. 

These may be saved as files, or as links to public documents that are already available 

on the NOP Web site, as applicable.

5. Prepare certifier documents for review. The staff member of the AD will provide the 

following documents for each certifier selected for review: 

a. Application for accreditation or renewal, including all attachments; 

b. AD document review summary sheet; 

c. NOP audit plan; 

d. NOP audit report; 

e. Letters and any Notices sent to the certifier; 

f. Proposed corrective action from the applicant; 

g. Notes and decision summary from accreditation committee meeting; 

h. Signed Terms of Accreditation from the certifier, if applicable; 

i. Decision letter from the Deputy Administrator; and

j. Certificate of accreditation, if applicable

6. Review accreditation procedures. Each member of the review panel will review the 

NOP accreditation procedural documents for the following criteria: 

a. Compliance with the accreditation procedures in Subpart F of the USDA 

organic regulations (7 CFR 205.500 - 205.510); and

b. Compliance with ISO/IEC 17011. 

7. Review accreditation decision documents in preparation for meeting. Each member of 

the peer review panel will review the accreditation decision documents provided. 

Panel members should consider whether the NOP and/or AD followed established 

NOP procedures for accrediting certifiers, renewing their accreditations, and

conducting other review types. 

8. Prepare individual opinions. Each member of the panel will complete a peer review 

report form for the review of the accreditation procedures and for each of the decision 

files. Reports will identify:

a. Any elements of the NOP accreditation procedures that are not aligned with 

Subpart F of the regulations or ISO/IEC 17011; 

b. Any instances where records indicate AMS personnel or committees did not 

adhere to established NOP procedures for accrediting, renewing, or otherwise 

reviewing certifiers; and 

c. Completeness and effectiveness of corrective actions from past reviews.
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9. Prepare draft consensus report. The peer review assessment body will consolidate the 

reports into a single narrative summary report. The draft report, along with copies of 

individual reports, will be circulated to the peer review panel. 

10. Peer review panel meeting. After reviewing the report, the peer review panel will 

meet by conference call to discuss their findings and the draft report. The panel will 

provide comments to the peer review assessment body and agree on language for the 

final report. 

11. Peer review panel report. The peer review assessment body will consider the 

comments and prepare a final report. The final report will be sent to the NOP Deputy 

Administrator with copies to the peer review panel.

12. Presentation. The peer review panel report, along with any NOP response, will be 

presented at the next NOSB public meeting. 

13. Publication. After the public meeting, the NOP will post a copy of the peer review 

panel report and the NOP response, on the NOP Web site. A USDA Organic Insider 

notice will announce the availability of the report. 

4. Records

The Office of the NOP Deputy Administrator will maintain copies of all peer review panel 

documents as electronic files on the NOP internal server for five years beyond their creation. As 

noted above, all final peer review panel reports will be posted on the NOP website; these final 

reports will be considered permanent records. 

5. References

Organic Foods Production Act of 1990, as amended

7 U.S.C. 6516 Peer review of certifying agents.

USDA Organic Regulations (7 CFR Part 205)

7 CFR 205.2 Terms Defined. 

Peer review panel. A panel of individuals who have expertise in organic production and 

handling methods and certification procedures and who are appointed by the 

Administrator to assist in evaluating applicants for accreditation as certifying agents.

7 CFR 205.509 Peer review panel. 

Other Resources

ISO/IEC 17011:2004 Conformity assessment – General requirements for accreditation bodies 

accrediting conformity assessment bodies.