Quality Assurance / Identity Preserved

Quality Assurance

The purpose of AOSCA’s Quality Assurance (QA) program is to provide a complete service for seed merchandised as varieties, hybrids, brands or blends that are generally not marketed as certified seed. System guidelines are very similar to certification guidelines and enable the seed producer to market seed with the assurance to each customer that the seed is of known purity and quality as verified by an unbiased third-party agency. The program provides coordinated, professional and unbiased field inspections and laboratory testing for quality control in seed in addition to an unbiased record system for use in meeting state and federal seed law requirements. Seed buyers have confidence that the designated seed has met purity standards related to a known description across seed lots and years of production.

Identity Preserved

Identity Preserved (IP) refers to the maintenance of a product’s specific traits or characteristics through growing, production and marketing channels. The purpose of AOSCA’s IP certification program is to assist in preserving the genetic and/or physical identity of a product. In order to use the IP logo, these specific minimum requirements must be met. Identity Preserved programs are designed to assure the identity of certain traits or physical qualities. Several AOSCA IP programs have been specifically developed to address transgenic crops and these provide a “systems approach” to assure that certain products meet tolerance levels of genetic material derived from biotechnology.