Tea Certifications

1. ISO 22000: 2005 ( Food Safety Management System)

Overview

The ISO 22000 family of standards relate to food safety management systems and are designed to help organizations of any size and at any stage in the food chain to ensure they meet the needs of customers and other stakeholders. The standards are published by ISO, the International Organization for Standardization and are available through National standards bodies.

This is a standard that defines food safety requirements that apply to all organizations in the food production this includes tea . We as EATTA encourages tea producers and warehousemen to adopt this system as this one of the requirement of buyers. The FSMS ensure that food products are produced in good manufacturing practice that cannot affect the consumer and hence impacting on the market.

ISO 22000 describes the requirements for operating an effective food safety management system integrating the use of the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) techniques and defined prerequisites for the safe production of food.

The ISO 22000 model is a systematic approach to developing, planning, validating, establishing, implementing, monitoring, verifying and improving the food safety management system. Implementation is split down into several distinct stages including:

2. Quality management principles (QMS 9001;2008)

Introduction

The East African Tea Trade Association adopted the application of this standard by its members who are proving various services across the tea value chain. The principles applied here are used by senior management as a framework to guide their tea organizations towards improved transparency and performance. The principles are derived from the collective experience and knowledge of the international experts who participate in ISO Technical Committee ISO/TC 176, Quality management and quality assurance, which is responsible for developing and maintaining the ISO 9000 standards.

The ISO 9000 family of standards relate to quality management systems and are designed to help organizations ensure they meet the needs of customers and other stakeholders. The standards are published by ISO, the International Organization for Standardization and are available through National standards bodies.

ISO 9000 deals with the fundamentals of quality management systems, including the eight management principles on which the family of standards is based. ISO 9001 deals with the requirements that organizations wishing to meet the standard have to meet.

ISO 9001 specifies the basic requirements for a quality management system (QMS) that an organization must fulfil to demonstrate its ability to consistently provide products (which include services) that enhance customer satisfaction and meet applicable statutory and regulatory requirements.

4. RAIN FOREST ALLIANCE

The Rainforest Alliance Certified™ seal is found globally on products such as cocoa, coffee, flowers, fruit, tea and vegetables from Africa, Latin America, Asia and Hawaii. The certification standards apply to over 100 types of crops and livestock.

Rainforest Alliance certification addresses whole-farm sustainability, which means that once farmers meet the certification standards, they can sell all eligible crops as Rainforest Alliance Certified.

EATTA encourages producers to be RA certified to be able to attract specific markets that source for teas farmed in rainforest Alliance certified.

5. FAIR TRADE

East African Tea Trade accepted fair trade as one of its standards as a reflection of due diligence in its operations. This standard was actually incorporated in the Tea catalogue after the approval by the EATTA Board of Directors. Fair trade is an organized social movement and market-based approach that aims to help producers in developing countries to make better trading conditions and promote sustainability. The movement advocates the payment of a higher price to exporters as well as higher social and environmental standards. It focuses in particular on exports from developing countries to developed countries, most notably handicrafts, coffee, cocoa, sugar, tea, bananas, honey, cotton, wine, fresh fruit, chocolate, and flowers. Fair trade is also associated with the trade justice movement, which advocates for fair trade public policies. There are several recognized fair trade certifiers, including Fairtrade International (formerly called FLO/Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International), IMO and Eco-Social

In 2008, products certified with Fairtrade International's Fairtrade certification amounted to approximately US$4.98 billion (€3.4B) worldwide, a 22% year-to-year increase. This represents a tiny fraction of world trade in physical merchandise, Fairtrade International claims that some fair trade products account for 20-50% of all sales in their product categories in individual countries, and in June 2008, claimed that over 7.5 million producers and their families were benefiting from fair trade funded infrastructure, technical assistance and community development projects. Fairtrade branding has extended beyond food and fibre, a development that has been particularly vibrant in the UK where there are 500 Fairtrade Towns, 118 Fairtrade universities, over 6000 Fairtrade churches, and over 4000 UK schools registered in the Fairtrade Schools Scheme.