All currently certified operations and all operations in application
status for certification are subject to unannounced inspections. TDA
will conduct unannounced inspections pursuant to 7 CFR Part 205, §205.403
and §205.670.
(1) Operations will not incur a fee when selected by
TDA for an unannounced inspection. However, if an operation expressly
requests an unannounced inspection in addition to their annual routine
inspection, a re-inspection fee will be incurred by the operation
and the only stipulation that can be made by the certified operation
is selection of a 20 day time period in which the inspection will
occur.
(2) An unannounced inspection will not include prior
notification of the inspector’s arrival. However, certain conditions,
including but not limited to distance of travel by the TDA inspector,
frequency of personnel at operation, and biosecurity issues, which
may make it impossible to conduct an unannounced inspection of the
operation without prior notification. In such cases, a TDA employee
may contact the operation up to 4 hours prior to arriving onsite to
ensure that appropriate representatives are present.
(3) The TDA inspector shall disclose to the operation
the reason that the operation was chosen for the unannounced inspection
prior to the start of the inspection.
(4) Criteria for conducting a risk-based unannounced
inspection may include, but is not limited to:
(A) Random selection by the TDA;
(B) Previously identified and/or outstanding noncompliance
issues;
(C) Investigations and/or responding to complaints;
(D) Organic and non-organic production or handling,
which includes visually indistinguishable varieties or processed products;
(E) Risk of an organic product coming into contact
with a prohibited substance applied to adjoining land use;
(F) Risk of an organic product or ingredient coming
into contact with a prohibited substance or commingling with a nonorganic
product during handling; and
(G) Complexity of operation.
(5) Unannounced inspections may fulfill the requirements
for annual on-site monitoring inspections of certified organic operations,
required by 7 CFR Part 205, §205.403, only if the inspector is
able to conduct a full inspection of the operation as required by
that section.
(6) Unannounced inspections may be limited in scope,
depth, and breadth, and may cover only certain aspects of the operation,
such as fields/units/parcels, facilities, products, handling activities,
etc.
(7) Inspectors may conduct sampling pursuant to §18.670
of this chapter and 7 CFR Part 205, §205.670 during an unannounced
inspection. Operations will not incur a fee for any samples collected
by a TDA Organic Inspector unless the collection of one or more samples
is expressly requested by the operation.
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