Under SOE, all solely online retail establishments must be certified. Similar to brick-and-mortar retail operations, all organic claims on a website, social media and all forms of marketing must be truthful and not misleading to shoppers about the status of whether a product is organic or not. Pay attention to the word “organic” as well as the USDA organic seal, on webpages and other marketing, especially webpages where product can be ordered, including the “shopping cart.” Ensure that all products are labeled correctly.

Retail establishments that sell private label organic products do not have to be a certified retailer, but the contract organization that manufactures or packages the products must be certified by an USDA accredited certifying agent. These products must be packaged prior to being received by the retailer, and remain in the same package or container and not be further processed by the retailer.

Cleaning and Sanitizing

Cleaning and sanitizing the grocery and prepackaged foods department is similar to other departments. Follow the guidelines in Section 2 (Cleaning and Sanitizing) to prevent contamination.

Good record keeping for the movement and processing of organic products allows for more transparency into the purchase and sale of organic products, helping retailers to maintain solid internal systems by effectively managing this process. Retail establishments are required to have documentation in place to demonstrate that they are receiving, storing, preparing, packaging, displaying and selling organic foods in a way that is not compromising organic integrity. The goal is for the retailer to demonstrate that the organic products are being managed effectively through their systems.

Any prepackaged organic product sold by a retailer in the same package that it was received in may maintain whatever labeling it arrived in.

As retailers you are in a unique position to see and detect fraud or misrepresentation of organic products. Are those nuts just too inexpensive to be true or is the labeling of an organic product obviously faulty? The first place to check out the legitimacy of a product is to look on the USDA Organic Integrity Database. Here you can reference any company or farm and quickly check their certification status and the kinds of products under their certification, as well as who does their certification.

As a retailer, you are expected to ensure your customers know which products or ingredients are organic and which are not. All organic claims on packaging, labeling and signage must be truthful and not misleading to shoppers about the status of whether or not a product is organic. Additionally, you are expected to ensure that no commingling or contamination of organic products has occurred within your operation.

The fundamentals of handling organic products are essential knowledge for management and staff responsible for developing in-store organic handling plans and practices. All employees should develop critical thinking skills necessary to ensure that the integrity of organic product is maintained. It is the retailer’s responsibility to ensure that the organic integrity of products in your operations are not jeopardized.