Saturday July 18, 2009, 2:37 am
Whole Foods Market (NASDAQ: WFMI) , the country's first national certified organic grocer and CCOF, one of the oldest and largest USDA-accredited third-party organic certifiers, announced today that each of the grocer's 273 stores in the United States has been individually certified, complying with stricter guidance on federal regulations.

"This news underscores our unwavering commitment to the overall integrity of organic and offers assurance to our shoppers," said Joe Dickson, quality standards coordinator for Whole Foods Market. "Our stores are an organic product's last step in the journey from farm to shopping cart. It's important for Whole Foods Market to maintain its certification as an organic retailer so our customers can trust that the organic food they choose has been sourced, stored, handled and marketed according to organic requirements."

After the USDA organic standards went into effect in 2002, a number of retailers voluntarily used a "group certification" model in which a certifier inspects a certain number of stores along with the overall company and its systems for monitoring compliance. Whole Foods Market was the first national chain to be certified under the USDA's national organic standards in 2003. In November 2008, the USDA's National Organic Program declared there could no longer be "group" certified stores and that each store must be certified individually.

"When we learned from the USDA that retail certification would become more challenging and comprehensive, our leadership unanimously decided to commit the resources to comply with the USDA's enhanced guidance for retail certification," said Margaret Wittenberg, vice-president of quality standards and public affairs for Whole Foods Market. "This program is such an important part of Whole Foods Market's commitment to organic integrity."

Under this program, CCOF verifies that Whole Foods Market:

* Examines the current organic certification status of organic products
* Maintains a record-keeping process that demonstrates an audit trail for organic products
* Ensures organic products are appropriately protected from commingling with conventional products and contamination with prohibited materials
* Trains store Team Members in handling practices for organic products

"We are very pleased to have been selected by Whole Foods Market as their certifier, since we share a commitment to organic integrity and support for strong USDA standards," said Peggy Miars, executive director of CCOF. "This was our largest retail certification to date, and we're pleased that we were able to deliver the rigorous service and support necessary to certify Whole Foods Market's 273 U.S. stores nationwide."

"Whole Foods Market selected CCOF to certify our stores nationwide because of CCOF's experience in the field and its reputation for upholding and protecting organic integrity, and they certainly delivered. In inspecting and certifying each one of our stores individually, CCOF's team has been extremely thorough and has helped us improve as an organic retailer," said Dickson. "Their inspectors verified that our team members across the country ensure that our products - from national brands to small local growers - are being sold with integrity."

The USDA's National Organic Standards require those who handle organic food -farmers, processors, packagers, etc. - to be certified, but do not extend the requirement to retail stores. Whole Foods Market opted to voluntarily have its stores certified to ensure that the integrity of the organic supply chain is intact.

"We believe that our customers benefit from having everyone who handled their organic food certified, not everyone except the retailer," said Dickson. "While some certified retailers may have just a few departments certified, and focus on shrink-wrapped organic produce, we've opted to go all out. In our stores, every department that handles organic food is certified - produce, meat, bulk, cheese, even stores with organic salad bars are certified."

Saturday July 18, 2009, 4:47 am
Federal requirement be dashed. US farmer plan to soon just label their products "grown chemical free." This mean the same thing as organic but there are federal regulations attached to the new labeling system.

Sunday July 19, 2009, 8:23 am
On the flip side, check out this news alert from the Organic Consumers Association, charging Whole Foods Market and United Natural Foods, Inc. with threatening to undermine the organic movement by flooding the marketplace with conventional products greenwashed with “natural” labeling:
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/642/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=27537
I trust the OCA much more than profit-driven Whole Foods!

Sunday July 19, 2009, 8:26 am
Thank you Anne, it's always good to have as much info about this issue as possible!

Sunday July 19, 2009, 8:43 am
OK, I had a look... there is a petition there as well. But it is all a little confusing for the consumer (AGAIN).

Let me try to sort this out.

1) From the newswire.com article above, date July 15th we have...:

"Whole Foods Market , the country's first national certified organic grocer and CCOF, one of the oldest and largest USDA-accredited third-party organic certifiers, announced today that each of the grocer's 273 stores in the United States has been individually certified, complying with stricter guidance on federal regulations. "

2) From the OCA article in the link, dated July 19th, we have:

"Natural","all-natural," and "sustainable," products in most cases are neither backed up by rules and regulations, nor a Third Party certifier. These are label claims that are neither policed nor monitored."

3) The petition on the OCA website asks Whole Foods Market to:

"Please consider putting a major priority on sourcing and selling USDA certified organic products, and putting pressure on all of your “natural” product suppliers to sign a contract with an accredited USDA organic certifier to get into a “transition to organic” program."

It seems that OCA is wanting Whole foods to take a recognized certification board for its products and stores, and follow USDA rules... but if we go back to (1), we read that that is exactly what Whole Foods has done (no? or is there something I have missed between the lines?

"Whole Foods Market , the country's first national certified organic grocer and CCOF, one of the oldest and largest USDA-accredited third-party organic certifiers, announced today that each of the grocer's 273 stores in the United States has been individually certified, complying with stricter guidance on federal regulations. "

(Bang head on computer...) If both articles are not going in the same direction then I am reading Chinese or something... Can you help with this, Anne?