Name: Efficiency Meets Trust: Certification Bundling with NSF
Uploaded: 2026-08-20T18:16:15.144Z
Duration: 55 min 16 s
Description: Efficiency Meets Trust: Certification Bundling with NSF

Transcript for "Efficiency Meets Trust: Certification Bundling with NSF": Hello, everyone, and welcome to today's webinar. We'll begin with a prerecorded introduction. There will be several interactive polls, and we'll have our content from our NSF expert, Jen Bergeloyle, and then move to a live q and a. Let's get things started. Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. We're excited to have you here for today's NSF webinar. Today's session is part of NSF's ongoing commitment to improving human and planet health, and we're looking forward to sharing practical insights to help you navigate the evolving regulatory landscape. Before we begin, a few quick housekeeping notes. This session is being recorded and will be available in the future so you can revisit the content at your convenience. To ensure the best audio and video quality for everyone, participants' microphones and cameras are turned off. We encourage your questions throughout the presentation. Please use the q and a feature to submit them at any time. We'll address as many questions as possible during the q and a portion at the end of the session. For those new to NSF, we are an independent, globally recognized organization that has been advancing public health and safety since 1944. NSF develops public health standards and provides certification, auditing, testing, and separately, consulting and training services across the food, water, consumer goods, and life sciences sectors. Our work helps company meet regulatory requirements, manage risk, and strengthen safety and quality across their operations, supporting both business growth and consumer trust. Alright. Before we begin our first interactive poll, I want to add an additional note, which is if you'd like a copy of today's presentation deck, use your q and a console and enter the word deck, and someone will follow-up with you directly after the event after the event closes. We'll now open our first poll and share it to the page. If you could add one bundled certification combination to strengthen your brand's market position, which would you choose? We'll allow about thirty seconds to fill out, and then we'll move on. Alright. It looks like we have a clear winner there in non GMO project verified plus gluten free, outselling all of the others. So we'll stop sharing that poll now, and we will begin the content with our presenter, Jen Birkebile. Thank you, Ken. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining today's webinar on Efficiency Meets Trust, Certification Bundling with NSF. My name is Jen Berkebile, and I'm the technical scheme lead for food claims at NSF. And I'm excited to highlight today the benefits of bundling our food certification services. We're gonna jump right in to discussing the advantages of certification with NSF, then we're gonna talk about bundling opportunities at NSF, NSF food claim certification bundling, bundling benefits, and we're gonna look at a case study. But before I get into these topics, let me briefly introduce NSF. Since 1944, NSF has been dedicated to protecting and advancing human health. Our vision is to be our client's trusted partner for safety, quality, sustainability, and brand protection and growth, leveraging science based principles, strategic partnerships, and data driven insights. NSF has been in the testing, inspection, and certification, or TIC, industry, for over eight decades. We were founded in 1944 as an independent scientific organization at the University of Michigan, and we focused on sanitation. But we advanced into food equipment, water treatment, wastewater, drinking water. And in the twenty tens, we expanded into wellness, pharma, biotech, and food, the focus of today's presentation. Now we certify operations in over a 110 countries, putting us at the forefront of protecting and advancing human health worldwide. Let's talk about the advantages of certification with NSF. Oftentimes, a consumer packaged goods manufacturer wants to make a claim about their product on the label to communicate something about the product to consumers. It can be very beneficial to have this claim certified by a third party. Certification defines your label claim, giving consistent meaning to the claim and ensuring that all products meet that definition. A self made label claim can be unclear or, at worst, misleading. What one consumer or manufacturer considers vegan to mean, for example, might differ from what another considers it to mean. On the other hand, a product that is certified vegan by NSF has a clear, written, consistent definition that all products are verified to meet. Certification gives this label claim meaning. Most consumers lack trust in self made claims. The Accountability Economy Comes to Retail white paper from 2021 found that only 14 to 16% of those surveyed fully trust self made claims on over the counter drugs, dietary supplements, and cosmetics, and personal care packaging. Certification increases that consumer trust. From the 2023 SPINs publication values oriented shopper, 73% of values oriented shoppers are influenced by product certification when purchasing a product. In addition, regulations in certain markets may require evidence of food of substantiation of food claims. Oftentimes, retailers require evidence of substantiation of claims as well. NSF can be your trusted partner for confidence in documentation and competence, allowing you to demonstrate your regulatory or retail compliance more easily. In addition, NSF is continuously tracking global regulatory changes and industry best practices. So by certifying with us, companies gain early visibility into evolving requirements, allowing for proactive adjustments rather than reactive compliance efforts. Ultimately, certification of label claims can increase product sales, communicate brand values, and provide proof of process, quality assurance, and retailer compliance. So why certify with NSF? NSF's unmatched credibility means that when you certify your products with NSF, you're not just building trust by ensuring that your products meet the relevant standards, you are building trust by working with a company with decades of experience delivering assurance across the food industry internationally. Our 2021 brand research validates that NSF is seen as trustworthy, respected, high quality, and reliable. 59% of brands or companies said NSF certification for a food or beverage product would be favorable to both the product and the company. Let's look at the numbers. NSF has certified on over 680,000 products. We've conducted over 330,000 audits, and we have over 40,000 clients in a 110 countries. In addition to our credibility, you'll see a fast time to certification. Our turnaround times for food claim certification right now really cannot be beat. The limiting factor is almost always the client. But once complete documentation is submitted, we can turn around a certification very quickly, especially if the standard does not require an audit or testing. And when it does, we can still work to meet your timeline needs. We also have certifications for a broad scope of products, foods, supplements, cosmetics, personal care, and household products, and more worldwide. NSF has offices and laboratories in more than 25 countries. If you're located outside of The US or if you're interested in using an international factory, we can most likely get there for the audit at a reasonable cost because we have auditors in that region, and we have local offices that can support you. If you wanna expand and sell your products internationally, we have certifications that are accepted in those markets. Finally, the ability to bundle services at NSF means that we are a one stop shop for all of your certification needs and more. So let's take a look at some of the broader bundling opportunities at NSF. NSF offers a wide suite of services, including certification, yes, which I've already mentioned, and inspections and testing, but also training, consulting, and digital services, everything shown here in what I call the 10 fingers of NSF services. You can even partner with NSF in ways not listed here. So, for example, we have worked with operators who want to develop and implement a new certification standard. Let me highlight a couple of these fingers, though. Supply chain food safety. NSF offers second party supplier assurance auditing and third party GFSI benchmark certifications, such as SQF, BRC, FSSC, Global Gap, Primus GFS, and IFS. Consulting. Our consulting division can help you with label development, label compliance, review, specification, and SOP development, FSMS or QMS development, and crisis prep and response. Training. NSF can deliver trainings to help your team have up to date skills and knowledge. We have more than 550 courses delivered through elearning, virtual classrooms, and in person workshops. We can also develop customized trainings as you look to get certified. For example, with NSF, we can develop and deliver a customized training for your facility personnel on the certification requirements. We recently completed a successful non GMO project verification training, but we can train on any of the food claim certifications I will mention shortly, such as well as HACCP, GFSI standards, root cause analysis, and food defense. I could go on. Of course, any consulting or training that you do at NSF will not affect your certification. If you apply for certification, it does not affect your ability to get certified or that certification decision that NSF ultimately makes. Finally, we can complete your testing. NSF's global network of ISO 17,025 accredited laboratories provides independent science based testing that underpins product safety, regulatory compliance, and market trust. I wanna call out Cambium Analytica, NSF's newest lab located in Traverse City, Michigan. Cambium offers analytical testing to determine all metrics of contents, quality, and compliance, routine environmental micro testing, supplement testing, food and botanical contaminants, and claims substantiation. They also do heavy metal and pesticide monitoring, stability studies, and nutritional product development and sensory studies. They can even partner with you on custom research projects. So when I say that NSF is your one stop shop for your certification related needs, I really do mean it. But the focus of today's presentation is the bundling of our food claim certifications. So let's take a look at those. NSF offers several food claim certifications. And I am saying food, but I am broadly encompassing food, beverages, dietary supplements, cosmetics, personal care, and household products. So starting on the top left, we offer gluten free, a certification that is often sought out by consumers with celiac disease or gluten sensitivities. We also offer vegan and cruelty free for products that don't contain animal materials or undergo animal testing, respectively. We have a certified raise without antibiotic claim for livestock products from animals that did not receive antibiotics. We offer certified cage free, certified free range, and certified pasture raised is coming soon for poultry products, and these are all certifications that NSF has developed and we administer. We also act as the administrator for some third party certifications, for example, certified plant based on the second row here. Certified plant based confirms that products are primarily plant based and contain no animal materials. We offer non GMO project verification and non UPF or non ultra processed foods verifications. These are both verifications owned by the non GMO project. And, of course, non GMO project verification verifies that products are produced without genetic modification. And non ultra processed foods or non UPF verification is a little bit newer. That confirms that products do not contain ultra processed food or ingredients as defined by the standard. And then, of course, we offer USDA organic certification under our USDA accredited certifier, QAI. Organic certification addresses crop, livestock, and processing requirements for products labeled as 100% organic, organic, or made with organic. NSF has our own certification for personal care products containing organic ingredients, and we also offer dietary supplement certification, including content certified and certified for sport. So let's talk about some of the common bundles we see of these food claim certifications. We see different variations of combinations of any of the claims I have highlighted here. A lot of these claims I've highlighted are common for processed products as opposed to maybe livestock or a raw agricultural product. Most of these claims are reaching consumers concerned about health and wellness, especially when you include the dietary supplement certifications at the bottom. So many of these claims do overlap in consumer segments, but there are differences that allow using multiple of these claims to expand consumer reach, and I'll talk a little bit more about that later. Looking at a few specific combinations, vegan and cruelty free go hand in hand, reaching consumers concerned about not consuming animal materials, consumed about concerned about animal wellness and animal welfare. And certified plant based is another common bundle with those two. Vegan and certified plant based are similar, but they are not exactly the same. They have different requirements. Non GMO project and non ultra processed foods or non UPF verification are both more complex standards, and we see these bundled together. Non GMO is more established, so we are seeing some of our non GMO project verification clients adding on non UPF, as a bundle. Non GMO and organic is a very common bundle. In organic, we also see bundled with cage free and free range when we start to think about poultry products on the farm itself, you know, more agriculturally focused. So let's take a look at some examples of products with bundled claims. Michelle's Granola has bundled both non GMO project verification and vegan certification with NSF for their almond butter, Up and Up plant based protein powder vanilla flavored is certified by NSF as gluten free, and it is NSF content certified. Garden of Life sport grass fed whey is certified for sport and gluten free certified with NSF. And Spindrift recently added non UPF verification to some of their products on top of non GMO verification, which they already had. So brands are taking advantage of the bundling opportunities at NSF. Now let's get a little deeper into the benefits of bundling. Firstly, bundling means centralized oversight and coordination with NSF, and this leads to reduced administrative burden for your company. You will work with one project manager for your certification, and this point of contact means that you are one email, call, or meeting away from getting your questions answered. NSF uses one program for your certification submissions, NSF Connect. Once you learn the system, you don't have to learn another. You don't have to use another. As you apply for certifications with NSF, your audits, corrective actions, and renewal timelines can be coordinated. This can reduce audit fatigue and minimize disruptions to operations, and it reduces the time plant personnel spend preparing for audits and responding to findings. And there is the reduced administrative burden of duplication. Submit a list of facilities, products, and ingredients once. Yes. Of course, different certifications do require different documents often, but there is also often overlap. And even when there isn't, you can find efficiencies. So, for example, if you need multiple different types of compliance documentation for ingredients, you can go to your supplier once and request all of that documentation at one time. You can update your SOPs all at one time. Let me show you how bundling certifications can enable coordination and decrease duplicative work within NSF's actual certification process. When you apply for bundled certifications with NSF, you first connect with the NSF sales team to submit your application and information about the certifications you're seeking. Once you've signed the quote, you'll be connected with your project manager, and they will support you in submitting the additional information needed for your certifications. This is the first place where we see some increased efficiency in bundling your certifications with NSF. You'll be submitting your list of facilities, your list of products, your list of ingredients and suppliers once through one portal to one project manager who's going to coordinate the review. Those documents might be for multiple certifications, but they are going to be reviewed then by one technical reviewer at the same time, which is easier for us and quicker for you. Once we look at these documents for your first certification, we become familiar with them. So when we go to look at them again in the context of your second certification, we're not starting from scratch. We have an understanding of your facility and your products and your ingredients. During this review, the technical reviewer may need to issue a finding. This is another spot for increased efficiency. If a finding affects multiple certification applications, for example, maybe we're missing a product label for a product that you wanna have certified both non GMO and plant based, you will effectively see and respond to one finding with the information we're asking for. After that, if one or more of the certifications require an on-site audit, we will schedule that, and, of course, we will bundle it if multiple certifications require an audit. Again, we're coming to your facility once, reducing the audit fatigue, the prep, and the follow-up. If there's testing, that will occur at this time. Then the technical evaluation is done by that same technical reviewer. They review the audit reports and testing results if testing and audit are required. And at this point, they may issue corrective actions very similar to findings. Now we're able to coordinate the issuance of the corrective actions. So if it applies to multiple audits, again, you will respond once. And even if it even if you get multiple corrective actions, you're able to coordinate your response to all of them. So once you have submitted everything we need, responded to findings and corrective actions satisfactorily, had your audit, and completed any testing as needed, certification is granted and it is maintained annually, and you will remain on that coordinated schedule annually. Let's look at an example of the documentation efficiencies of bundling two certifications with NSF. So this is an example with non GMO project shown on the left and plant based certification shown on the right. In the center, we have the submission requirements for the application. So you can see that for both programs, you need to submit your labels, your ingredients, and your product formulations, your suppliers as well, your list of facilities. That's all submitted once. Now for non GMO project, you do need a specific compliance plan. So that's something only for non GMO. And then for non GMO, you are also required to submit some SOPs. Those will likely satisfy the SOP requirement for plant based. For non GMO project verification, you may need an on-site audit, although that is very rare. Most clients do not require an audit. And then, of course, for both programs, you do have to submit compliance documents for the ingredients. And those the requirements for those documents are, of course, different. However, if you're applying for both of these certifications at the same time, you can reach out to your suppliers once with your request for both the NGP specific form to be filled out and for any documentation that will verify that the ingredient does not contain animal materials and will verify the plant based percentage. And sometimes that NGP specific form that we provide you to give to your supplier, sometimes we get enough information on that form to verify certified plant based compliance because that form will list all of the subingredients of the ingredient and all of the sources. So sometimes we only need one form, but even if we need multiple pieces of documentation, you can do that reach out to your supplier once. So bundling non GMO project verification and plant based certification can increase the efficiency of your operation. K. In addition to reduced administrative burden, bundling certification results in simplified change management. When product formulations, sourcing, or labeling changes occur, NSF can evaluate impacts across all certifications simultaneously, reducing redundancy, ensuring consistency, and reducing rework. And as your brand grows and wanna add new claims, we can more quickly onboard the additional certifications, leveraging prior audits or existing documentation and information as appropriate. Ultimately, the reduced administrative burden and simplifying change management benefits of bundling mean a lower cost. Because bundling certifications with NSF can allow for coordination of reviews and administrative processes on our end, NSF duplication of effort is less. So we lower our cost, and then we lower your cost. We do offer a discount on certain certification costs when the certifications are bundled. Again, we also bundle audits when possible, lowering that audit cost. Not only that, the internal cost to your organization can be lowered by bundling certifications with NSF. Again, staff are spending less time submitting documents required by multiple certifiers to multiple portals, using multiple databases. You're submitting them once to NSF. And, again, bundling certifications means you're spending less time updating your SOPs and labels because you're only doing it once as opposed to through time. Not only are you reducing cost by bundling, but you're gonna see your profit sooner as bundling can increase your speed to market. By bundling, you can streamline project management, ingredient reviews, supplier verification, and certification approvals. Coordinated reviews can help launch products more efficiency efficiently compared to pursuing each claim independently, especially when you have a retailer or regulation requiring verification of your claims. That means you are seeing your profits more quickly. And, of course, bundling certifications offers a competitive marketplace advantage. It allows you to strengthen consumer confidence and reduce skepticism around your label claims. It allows you to satisfy multiple customer and retailer expectations simultaneously, reducing the need for initial additional claims substantiation requests, and it creates a stronger product proposition while responding to grower consumer demand for transparency and helps products stand out, particularly in natural, specialty, and health food focused retail channels. Ultimately, products carrying multiple highly recognized certifications can appeal to overlapping consumer segments and increase consideration at the shelf. Let's look at some examples. In a survey conducted by the Non GMO project and linkage research of 2,000 US and Canadian consumers, 41% were more likely to buy products with USDA organic certification, while 36% were more likely to buy products with non GMO project verification. The recognition of these certifications has reached 7266% for USDA organic and non GMO project verified, respectively. So an organic and non GMO combination remains one of the most recognized certification combos in the natural foods market segment, and it signals both ingredient integrity and production standards. According to a study conducted by Benio GmbH with Insights Consulting, 25% of consumers worldwide call themselves flexitarian. A flexitarian diet consists mostly of plant based foods with animal products in moderation. 84% of these flexitarians then are concerned about climate change and the environment. A 2025 study from NSF found that 67% of consumers make purchasing decisions influenced by sustainability and ethical considerations, And consumers are increasingly evaluating products based on environmental responsibility, ethical practices, and company values in addition to ingredients. So although plant based, vegan, and cruelty free, product certifications can serve overlapping consumer groups, they can also satisfy distinct consumer motivations by appealing to health conscious consumers, ethical shoppers, and the growing flexitarian population. Finally, in addition to what we already heard about the non GMO project, Health Focus International reported that ultra processed foods are the number one food concern among US consumers, ranking ahead of concerns about sugar and saturated fat. According to Anova Market Insights, about half of US consumers report trying to eat less processed food because they view ultra processed foods as unhealthy or nutritionally inferior. Packaged Facts May 2024 national online consumer survey revealed that 51% of consumers actively seek clean label packaged foods. So bundling non GMO and non UPF verifications can appeal to these consumers seeking cleaner label foods with non GMO ingredients and consumers seeking minimal processing. This chart should give you some ideas of how bundling certification claims can give you access to these different consumer segments. As I've mentioned, many of the claims appeal to consumers interested in health and wellness, but adding additional certification claims can allow you to reach consumer bases concerned about sustainability, ethical sourcing, processed food, etcetera. Now let's take a look at Cruncho, a success story for bundling certifications with NSF. Cruncho is a Kuwait based snack innovator, and they produce pro life brand snacks. Cruncho's pro life range includes high protein pots, pea based chips, collagen infused snacks, and vitamin enriched options, all tailored to diverse dietary needs and designed to meet the region's growing demand for functional food. As you can see here on the ProLife website, Cruncho is proudly certified by NSF as cruelty free, vegan, gluten free, and they are non GMO project verified. That means they had one single point of contact with NSF, their project manager, Hilda. They had a single submission of products, formulas, ingredients, and labels. They were able to coordinate their reach out to reach out to their suppliers once for compliance documentation. And NSF was able to deliver a bundled NGP and gluten free audit, and we were able to deliver it at a reasonable cost because of our worldwide presence. Cruncho's cruelty free vegan and gluten free certifications and non GMO project verification have positioned Cruncho as an industry pioneer in Kuwait and the broader Gulf Region. As consumers become more conscious of ingredient sourcing, animal welfare, and dietary requirements, Cruncho communicates its commitment to meeting those expectations right on the labels through independently verified standards. These certifications create access to new customer segments and growth opportunities, and they broaden Cruncho's appeal across multiple consumer groups, allowing the brand to reach a larger and more diverse market. With the value many retailers, distributors, food super food service operations, and global markets place on third party certifications when evaluating new brands and products, Cruncho is positioned to compete more effectively in and beyond Kuwait and across international markets. Ultimately, certification achieved by Cruncho helps increase in consumer trust, strengthen brand loyalty, and create a meaningful competitive advantage against products that lack independent verification. So what does Cruncho say? Mohammed Ali Khan, the quality assurance officer at Cruncho, said, achieving the first dual certification under NSF protocol five four three, which is our vegan and cruelty free protocol, helps us meet growing consumer demand for products that align with their ethical values. This certification gives our customers verified confidence in our commitment to subs to sustainable and cruelty free practices. He goes on to say, earning both gluten free certification and non GMO project verification marks a pivotal moment for Cruncho. Consumers today are more conscious than ever about what goes into their food, and this certification and verification reinforce our promise to deliver clean label snacks they can trust. These milestones demonstrate our commitment to delivering snacks that are not only delicious, but also responsibly sourced and transparently labeled. We're grateful to NSF for their support throughout the verification and certification process. So if you are ready to bundle your certifications with NSF and receive all of the benefits that I've mentioned and more, please reach out. We will provide you with a quote and identify any other opportunities that NSF can work with you to meet your needs. You can scan the QR code on the screen to get started, and you can learn more at nsf.org. Thank you very much. Well, thank you for that, Jen. It was a lot of great information. Before we move on to the q and a, we will, launch our second interactive poll. So that should be appearing on your screen very shortly, and we'll give everyone a few seconds to answer that one. It's when evaluating bundled certifications, which business benefit is the most important driver for your organization? So we'll give everyone a few seconds to answer that. Alright. It looks like as we close that out, it's a pretty close tie between increasing revenue and product sales and demonstrating verified manufacturing and sourcing practices, but differentiating and strengthening brand position is also close behind there. So we'll close out that poll. Before we move to q and a, I'll share a couple of quick, videos. One is about NSF food training for those folks who might be interested in that, and then a bit more about Cambium Analytica. If you're ready to take the next step, NSF training offers a wide range of educational opportunities designed to support your professional growth. From foundational knowledge to advanced industry specific topics, our training programs help individuals and teams stay current, build confidence, and strengthen compliance across the organization. The use of NSF consultancy services or attending NSF training sessions does not provide an advantage nor is it linked in any way to the granting of certification. Whether you're looking to expand your expertise or equip your team with practical real world skills, NSF training is here to help you learn more and move forward. Scan this QR code to learn more. We are excited to share that NSF, a global leader in public health and safety, has acquired Cambium Analytica. Cambium is widely recognized as an innovative analytical testing and development company serving the natural food, beverage, and dietary supplement industries. With this acquisition, NSF significantly expands its capabilities, bringing together deep scientific expertise and scalable best in class solutions to meet the rapidly growing demands driven by major industry trends. For our clients, this means greater access to integrated services that support innovation while maintaining the highest standards of safety and quality. This acquisition positions NSF and Cambium to better help companies grow demand for natural food, beverage, and supplement products confidently and responsibly in in an increasingly complex marketplace. Scan this QR code to learn more about Cambium analytics. Alright. Thank you for all of that information. And we're gonna now move to, on stage with our friend Jen so that we can do some q and a. Coincidentally, as part of that last video of business about Cambium, we did have a question about Cambium Analytica. So I did a quick background reach out to our friends there in Cambium. The question was, does Cambium Analytica test for very specific things such as lactose and polydextrose? And the quick answer from our friends at Cambium is that Cambium Analytica offers animal and plant allergen testing and a sugar profile test that may also account for lactose. That's part of its analytical test library for natural products, supplements, botanicals, and related categories. But for specific ingredients like lactose or polydextrose, Cambium can perform custom analytical panels that can include those analysis if you can specify the required methods. They'll also help you build those methodologies. So that, that helps with that question. And now we'll move on to some of the questions that we got for our friend Jen. Our first one up. With NSF's gluten free certification claim, is that through NSF's own standards? Currently, my plant is certified gluten free by GFCO. I'd like to know if it would be similar to GIG standards. Now that's a lot of abbreviations, Jen. So, hopefully, you'll be able to sort those out for us. Yes. Great question. NSF's gluten free certification is our own program. It so I'm familiar with the GFCO certification from the gluten intolerance group. I have done a comparison. The certifications have some differences, but they're not very far off. We can go into much more detail if you reach out to our sales team or if you leave your information. I'm happy to contact you. This is one of the programs I work on the most. But I will say there is a great opportunity. If you're interested in NSF gluten free certification, initial client new clients, I guess I'll call them, can potentially waive the initial audit and initial testing that's required in conjunction with the audit. If you are able to provide a certificate for your facility so valid certificate for your facility, and if that certificate lists the products that you're seeking to have certified with NSF. So if it meets both of those requirements, we can issue our certification without that initial audit and initial testing that's done in conjunction with the audit. If you have a GFCO certificate, but you're wanna come to NSF for different products, in that case, we would still waive the initial audit for that facility, but we would require some testing. So we would coordinate with you to get the sample. But similar to GFCO, I'm sure we require an application. We require labels, your products, your ingredient information, and compliance documentation for all of your ingredients, and then some SOPs. And then, you know, as I've mentioned, typically, we would require an on-site audit and testing done in conjunction with the audit. So fairly similar to GxEO, but I think there are some advantages to coming with NSF. Again, reach out if you want some more information. Great. Thank you. Our next question is a little bit about orders of operation. You highlighted that organic and non GMO remains one of the most recognized certification combos for consumers. If this company is concerned considering organic certification, how do they know if they should pursue non GMO project verification now or edit later? Okay. So organic and non GMO same time or maybe add later. I think there are a couple things to consider. What is your market? Where are you selling? Who's your retailer? What region? Are is there a requirement for verification of third party non GMO claims? Because because some retailers or regions do require that. So if that's required, if you wanna get into a market and they're required, they require you to have a third party verification of a non GMO claim. And it might be beneficial to do these two together so that you can make that claim right away and get into that retailer, for example, sooner. You're you're only updating your label once as well with both both logos. Another thing to consider is if you're gonna have an audit. So organic does require an audit. As I mentioned, non GMO does not always require an audit. I believe an audit is required for Non GMO at the discretion of NSF, which is kind of broad, or if you are parallel processing certain compliant and noncompliant ingredients according to the Non GMO project standards. So that's hard for you to know, but if you reach out to NSF, we can help you determine whether an audit would be required. And then if if an audit is required, again, you might wanna bundle them at the same time, because we can come on-site once for that audit. So I think those are some things to consider if you're deciding between just organic now, add adding non Gmail later, or doing them both at the same time. Great. A bit of a a pivot now. There's a question about the difference between vegan certification and plant based certification. I'm guessing there's some nuance there. There is some nuance. So vegan certification requires that those products contain no animal derived materials or ingredients or byproducts or processing aids, and the final product cannot be tested on animals. So just talking about product requirements, we're focused on no animals. Plant based has a has a similar requirement and that there can be no animal ingredients. However, plant based is also requiring that 90% of the ingredients be plant based or plant derived. So you can have a vegan product that is maybe 100% mineral, which is neither an animal nor a plant, but that would not qualify for plant based certification. Plant based has to have the majority, 90% of the ingredients actually derived from plants. So that's how those two claims bundled together can sort of reach different consumer segments because vegan consumers are often concerned most about animal welfare, but plant based consumers might be concerned about health consuming a lot of plants. They wanna eat more plants. They wanna eat more healthily. So having both claims can sort of give you access to both of those consumer segments. Great. Speaking of claims, are there any emerging claims that NSF anticipates will be important in the next few years? I think not non ultra processed foods, definitely. As I mentioned, it's the number one concern for consumers right now. There's no current federal regulatory definition in The US for ultra processed foods. So although there's a lot of talk about it at the regulatory level and at the consumer level and at the manufacturer level, I think there there's a lot of room for confusion around the claim, confusion around the use of the claim on packaging. So I think non UPF verification will be really important for standardizing consumers' understanding of the claim of what a u p what an ultra processed food is, standardizing consumers' understanding of what a non ultra processed food claim means. And I as I mentioned, it's it is a newer claim. So I think now is the time to get in on that, as the momentum keeps building. And last thing I'll say is it's owned by the non GMO project, which I mentioned there on top of what is happening regulation wise. So the the claim itself will be adapting to regulations as needed. They're on top of that and and will enable you to meet regulatory compliance. That's great to know. Yeah. Thank you. Obviously, non UPF is on a lot of people's minds nowadays, so, a very current topic. Another question for brands evaluating the business case for certification bundling. Which certification combination is currently delivering the strongest balance of consumer recognition? Maybe retailer acceptance or operational efficiency, particularly for, say, the North American market. Definitely, I think, as I've mentioned, is non GMO and organic. So non GMO project verification, USDA organic certification. Organic certification, USDA organic certification is required for the sale of organic, made with organic, or 100% organic products in The US. They are required to be certified. And then I think the consumer recognition and retailer acceptance for non GMO is very, very high. Both of these programs are a bit complex, as I mentioned. But, again, if you're thinking about your market, your retailer, thinking about audit requirements, I think those are the two programs that are have really good business really strong business cases and could be most beneficial. Alright. For, say, your smaller companies, your newer companies that may not have any certifications at all yet, So they're kind of starting from zero. What what would you recommend be their first steps? First step, reach out to NSF. I I say reach out to our sales team because, you know, I mentioned a lot of certifications today. There are a lot of nuances with all of those certifications. Right away, you'll be able to find out maybe that your product type is eligible for this type of certification, but not this type of certification. Right away, you'll be able to get quotes on the cost so you can figure out which ones you wanna add into your budget and which ones you don't. And then, you know, you you just have to think about what your product is, what kind of consumer segments you're trying to appeal to. Is there kind of a natural fit for your type of product? What label claims do you already make? What label claims do you want to make? I know it can sound kind of overwhelming, but NSF can definitely help you answer some of these questions. We can we also offer pre assessments. So if you want more information on your eligibility for certain programs without commitment to certification to that program, we can do those for you as well to help you as you're figuring out where you know, what roads you exactly wanna go down. Terrific. Okay. Well, we have a couple of more questions to round ourselves. So that one is one is a bit more complex than the other. So I'll start with that one. As ingredient source of change as ingredient sourcing changes over time, how can company structure their supplier approval, their change management processes so that non GMO, gluten free, plant based certifications, all of those can all be maintained with a minimal rework. Okay. So structuring your your supplier approval, you said, for change. Yep. Okay. So I if you're working with NSF, I would say the first step is to reach out to your project manager because they're gonna guide you right away which what information, which forms we need you to submit for all of the programs that you're part of, for all of the certifications that you have. So they'll give you that NGP specific form. Certifications that you have. So they'll give you that NGP specific form. They'll give you the plant based specific form. They'll give you a gluten free specific form if those are your programs. They'll give you the most current version of the form. So maybe you've used an older version. This I see this sometimes. An older version is submitted. We have to go back and kind of get the newest version. So I would put it right in your SOP, reach out to NSF, train your staff, reach out to NSF as you're talking about changes. This can be done, you know, as you're pretty set on your new formulation, for example, or it can be done as you're considering new ingredients. You can reach out and say, hey. We're considering this ingredient, and we can take a look at it for you as part of your certification. So and then the other thing I'll say, I sort of mentioned non GMO project has some specific forms, and that's generally what we are requiring you to have your suppliers fill out for ingredient compliance. For gluten free and and, was it plant based? I think we can supply you with forms. And if those forms are filled out, we will have the information we need to make a compliance decision. For those programs, we can also sometimes accept supplier written documentation. So for gluten free for some ingredients, if the manufacturer supplier has a statement, we can accept that. But for sort of a way to prevent rework, if that's what you're looking for, you know, I recommend reaching out and using our forms, giving those to your suppliers to your new suppliers, seeing if they're willing to fill them out. Because if those forms that we have are completely filled out again, we'll we will likely have the information we need to make a decision, and you won't have to go back Great. Great help to help streamline that process. Okay. One sort of a wrap up question for everybody as a takeaway. If you could just give us an idea, to does NSF's. best, how does NSF's bundle approach differ from other certification bodies? Okay. Yeah. Well, some of these things I mentioned, but, you know, we have you'll have a single project manager available to you as needed, a real person that you can talk to on the phone. Some other certifiers don't have that, and I know I myself can be frustrated when I'm on the phone trying to hit one, hit one, hit one, or, you know, speaking to an AI agent. You will speak to a real person at NSF. Again, we have a single technical reviewer reviewing the file for your multiple certifications, discounts on your certification for bundles, bundled audits. And I think maybe most importantly, the fast TAT. I I really wanna give my hats off to our team who's doing a really great job at turning around the review of submitted documentation very, very quickly. So we can get back to you at the very least with your findings or corrective actions very quickly, or hopefully your certification if you don't have any findings or corrective actions. Great. Thank you. We had one last question coming about the best way to get in touch with NSF. I know that there's a contact us page on nsf.org. But, since you've, posed your question here in this webinar, I'll just let you know that I'll follow-up specifically for that person and make sure that somebody gets back to them directly. One last push piece here is that if, anybody who's attending again a reminder, if you want a copy of this deck after the event, you want somebody to reach out directly and deliver that to you by email, just simply type the words deck into the q and a, and someone will be able to help you with that, probably within a few days after this event ends. Other than that, we've kind of gotten through all of our questions. So thank you again, Jen, for all of your expertise today. I'm sure you helped a lot of people get a little bit further in the process. And, we wanna thank everybody who attended our webinar. Please make sure you check for a follow-up email that'll have links for things like training or future webinars that are gonna be about to happen. So, with that, thank you everyone, and we will close our session out.