Getting the “USDA Organic” seal costs time and money, but it can open doors to a growing market
Getting the “USDA Organic” seal costs time and money, but it can open doors to a growing market
When inspector Dovi Naparstek walks through the door of the Raaka Chocolate factory in the Red Hook area of Brooklyn, New York, he’s hit with an unmistakable scent.
“I feel like every time I’m here, my clothes smell like chocolate for the next few days,” Naparstek said.
Naparstek works for Natural Food Certifiers, a company that’s one of about 75 organizations that can grant the USDA Organic seal. He’s at the factory to conduct the annual inspection for Raaka Chocolate to keep its organic certification.
Over the past 10 years, the market for organic products in the U.S. has more than doubled. That’s according to the Organic Trade Association, which estimated the category’s sales at a record $67.6 billion in 2022.
To get the right to put one of those USDA Organic seals on their products, farmers and companies need to pass inspections by third-party certifiers who work with the federal agency and the farmer (or rancher or coffee roaster). Some certifiers are private companies. Others are nonprofits, and some are state agencies. That means the process of getting certified as organic comes with a lot of paperwork.
During the inspection at Raaka Chocolate, CJ Knowles, the company’s director of quality assurance and operations, walks the inspector to where the ingredients are stored. There are huge sacks of cocoa beans, giant bins of flour and a cabinet filled with spices, herbs, fruit juice powders and vanilla.
Then Knowles leads him into a room where many surfaces have a fine dusting of cocoa powder.
“This is the room where we actually process down cocoa beans,” explained Knowles.
That’s separating the shell from the nib that becomes the chocolate we eat.
Knowles then shows the inspector how the chocolate is mixed, molded and finally, wrapped, using a vintage machine made of brown metal.
Naparstek, clad in a mandatory hair net and beard net, asks what cleaning products are used in the factory.
“Good old Clorox,” Knowles answers, pulling out a bottle. (Also, Simple Green and Seventh Generation dish soap.)
Naparstek also asks how Raaka controls for pests. “Primary methods are glue traps, lights, pheromone traps and a mating disrupter system,” Knowles says.
To keep its organic certification, the company is expected to rely on natural processes and minimize the use of synthetic materials. In some inspections, Naparstek will take a sample of an ingredient or finished product and send it to a lab to identify the substances it contains.
Mendy Flamer, owner of Natural Food Certifiers, who’s also here for the inspection, noted that this is all part of adhering to organic principles.
The tour of the shop floor takes about an hour. The bulk of Naparstek’s inspection, another four or five hours, takes place in front of a computer.
“There has to be records for every transaction, essentially,” Naparstek says. “We kind of say, ‘If there’s no record of it, it never happened.’”
All of the ingredients need to be certified organic. Naparstek chooses one and asks to see its certificate.
Then, he takes a careful look at how much the company has used. “So how many products would you say use organic freeze-dried strawberry?” Naparstek asks.
He’s trying to make sure that the amount of strawberry Raaka used lines up with the amount of chocolate it produced. Knowles has to show that the company isn’t sneaking in any nonorganic ingredients.
“It’s the ‘Where did the mystery strawberry come from?” exercise,” Knowles explains.
His spreadsheets are works of art, with tabs and links keeping track of ingredients and the timing of when chocolate is poured, wrapped and shipped.
At the next annual inspection, Raaka could be asked to provide even more paperwork. In the past, not all middlemen moving organic goods along the supply chain had to be certified organic. But a new Department of Agriculture rule that will start to be enforced in March changes that.
“If you are brokering or handling or managing organic product, you need to be certified,” said Jennifer Tucker, deputy administrator of the National Organic Program at the USDA. “That will allow us to detect any possible fraud in the system.”
All this paperwork seems like a huge pain in the patootie. But organic certification has helped Raaka court large retailers that understand the power of the organic seal.
“Very early on, we got into Whole Foods,” said Nathan Hodge, the CEO and co-founder of Raaka Chocolate. “Getting that retailer was transformational to the business just because of the number of doors that we were able to get in.”
Hodge said that being certified organic is also in line with the company’s values around transparency.
There are costs. Hodge said Raaka pays several thousand dollars every year for its certification. (Producers can apply for partial reimbursement from the USDA.) Certified organic ingredients also generally cost more.
These costs are visible in Raaka’s prices: A 1.8-ounce bar of chocolate starts at around $6.
A disadvantage, Hodge said, is that he’s met cocoa farmers who produce high-quality beans that aren’t certified organic. So, Raaka can’t use them.
“They’re using organic practices. They’re just in some places where it’s hard to get certifiers,” he said.
The Ag Department is working with universities to encourage more people to become inspectors. In the meantime, Hodge said he plans to stick with organic certification, despite the expense.
“The most costly thing would be having to switch over our production line between organic and nonorganic,” he said.
The growth of organic certification for farmers and companies has slowed in the last couple of years, according to the USDA.
And taking that leap can be challenging, noted Sarah Brown, the certification director at PCO, a nonprofit organic certifier.
“I do think the paperwork is intimidating,” said Brown, who’s also co-owner of Diggin’ Roots Farm in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, where she grows about 40 certified organic vegetables.
Another obstacle? Farmers’ appetite for risk. “When you’re pursuing a new production system, it’s kind of a gamble,” she said. Brown added, though, that as the next generation takes over, we could see more farms get certified organic.
“The wave of succession that we’re going to see in farms over the next few decades, and the turnover to younger children or nephews, I think there is a huge opportunity there,” Brown said.
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