Round Table on Responsible Soy Association

Any certification body (CB) that wishes to offer a service of compliance assessments and issue of certificates for any of the RTRS standards must be RTRS accredited. Only accreditation bodies (AB) which have been formally endorsed by RTRS may accredit CB to carry out compliance assessments and award certificates for RTRS Standards.

Accreditation bodies may be National Accreditation bodies, or International Accreditation bodies.  National AB as well as International AB must be operating in accordance with the requirements of ISO 17011:2004. Besides, RTRS has established certain additional requirements, according to the standard under which the certification will be done. These requirements are found in the documents: “RTRS Accreditation and Certification Standard for responsible soy production” and “RTRS Chain of Custody Accreditation and Verification requirements for CBs".

The CB shall make a formal request to the RTRS Secretariat for preliminary recognition by the RTRS as an applicant CB. If approved by the RTRS, the CB shall sign a contract with the RTRS authorizing them to commence the application for accreditation by an RTRS-endorsed accreditation body. The CB shall achieve a positive accreditation decision by an RTRS-endorsed AB within eight (8) months for the responsible soy production standard and twelve (12) months for the Chain of Custody standard, of the date of signing the contract for preliminary recognition by the RTRS.

After a CB is granted with a successful accreditation decision made by an RTRS-endorsed National or International Accreditation Body (AB) the CB shall send to the RTRS Secretariat a complete application form to request a full recognition status.

Application for Formal Recognition of Certification Bodies under RTRS Standars

Recognition Form for changes and incorporations in auditors and scope_V1.0 ENG