The Inside Scoop on an External Quality Audit
Today, it’s not enough to claim a product is safe and of the highest quality, anyone can make claims. When it comes down to it, a company must prove the safety, quality and efficacy of their products and New Earth does just that through many certifications and yearly audits. Because, at the end of the day it’s about you, your health, and your safety.
New Earth has earned certifications for USDA-Organic, NSF/ GMP, Kosher, Halal, and Paleo. Each of these certification agencies has its own standards and requirements; however, there are many areas in which the standards overlap.
Our organic and NSF certifiers conduct thorough, unbiased audits each year to ensure that New Earth is conforming to the standards each certifying body requires.
Organic certification—New Earth’s facilities and microalgae are certified organic by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Organic Program (NOP). For years, OCCPP/Pro-Cert of Canada has performed thorough annual audits of our processing facilities and the watershed that feeds into Klamath Lake, and continues to certify that our entire operation is compliant with the requirements for organic certification.
This extensive audit covers everything from ingredients to the watershed. As a part of the audit, New Earth provides Pro-Cert with each and every certification the company holds along with supplier and third-party certifications. But it doesn’t stop there– Pro-Cert also examines traceability, ensuring that the company can trace the product and ingredients document-flow back to the supplier, and that everything has been correctly monitored and documented.
From there, we move onto the watershed where Pro-Cert selects areas to physically examine in order to determine that there has not been any change to the environment that could impact the watershed, and ultimately the lake from which the microalgae is harvested. In addition, we review our internal audits on the watershed, covering everything from plant and animal species to the temperature and dissolved oxygen values of the streams. All to ensure this pristine environment is just that, pristine.
After that, Pro-Cert examines our processing facilities and reviews a variety of documents including harvest logs, product labels, standard operating procedures, and promotional literature, to name a few.
NSF International GMP – NSF (National Sanitation Foundation) is an independent third-party certification body that standardizes sanitation and food safety regulations. NSF conducts on-site audits 1-2 times per year, with one audit spanning over a three-day period. The purpose of the audit is to ensure that safety and sanitation methods are being upheld.
New Earth maintains its own manufacturing facilities that are registered by NSF International to FDA’s Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP). Our facilities are also registered GMP for Sport™ so you can be assured that there are no banned substances in any of New Earth’s products. Recently, NSF has adopted the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) procedures, which goes beyond FDA requirements for supplements. FSMA was designed to help maintain healthy, safe foods free of contamination. New Earth has embraced positive practices in order to meet these new and necessary regulations.
NSF examines our production facilities and equipment used in manufacturing New Earth’s products to ensure that the company is conforming to our established SOPs, which include maintaining the equipment and meeting established procedures for cleanliness, and testing the production equipment following sanitation for the possible presence of allergens.
NSF validates internal policies and procedures by thoroughly inspecting documentation procedures. They comb through everything from SOPs to inventory data to batch records.
From there, a trace exercise is performed on a random product where the individual ingredients and amount of ingredients are traced back to their source, ensuring everything adds up as it should.
After that, cleaning and maintenance schedules for all equipment, the harvesters, and production rooms are examined and all equipment and lab records are put under the microscope.
Finally, warehouse freezers and the receiving refrigerated room where ingredients and finished products are stored are inspected, as well as the shipping facility.
As you can see, there is no area left unscrutinized! All of these procedures insure that we go the extra mile to provide a safe, high-quality product.
Star-K Kosher Certification – Star-K of Baltimore, Maryland, certifies New Earth’s facilities and products to kosher standards–meeting the requirements of Jewish law. A representative from Star-K inspects our facilities, products, and documentation on a quarterly basis. Representatives for Star-K also inspect all of the operations of vendors that produce and supply kosher-certified products to New Earth.
Halal Certification – The Islamic Food and Nutrition Council of America (IFANCA) developed a procedure for producing halal (meaning “lawful” or “permitted”) products that assure consistent methodical cleanliness throughout the entire production process. IFANCA inspects New Earth’s facilities and processes annually, and has certified Wild Body and Wild Mind to halal certification standards.
Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA) and United States Food & Drug Administration (USFDA) – We comply fully with all regulations of the ODA and USFDA. Both ODA and FDA make unscheduled visits and examine our facility.
Paleo Friendly – The Paleo Friendly certification was developed by the Paleo Foundation, Inc. to identify food products that meet the standards of the Paleo Diet. It requires products to be free of grains, legumes, and dairy, with no artificial additives or preservatives. The Paleo certification is updated yearly.
With consideration to the rigorous testing that our microalgae and ingredients go through, the extensive examinations of our watershed, processing facilities, documents and procedures by a number of certifying agencies, you can see that New Earth goes above and beyond to ensure that you receive a reliable, safe, and quality product!
