What are the inspection and certification procedures for organic farming?
Guarantee product conformity
All operators are inspected at least once a year by their certification body. Some operators are inspected several times a year, based on the risk analysis carried out without prior notice by their certification body. Operators benefiting from derogations are also subject to specific or reinforced control measures.
The activity of certifying bodies is itself-itself regularly controlled by the services of the INAO.
Consult the list of approved inspection bodies(PDF format / 594ko)
The legal framework of the control system
- Decision n°INAO-DEC-CONT-AB-1: Common inspection provisions / analytical strategy to be implemented for the inspection of organic production operators (until 31/12/2025) (PDF format - 985ko)
Last update: December 20, 2024
- Decision n°INAO-DEC-CONT-AB-1-v7: Common inspection provisions / analytical strategy to be implemented for the inspection of organic production operators (from 01/01/2026) (PDF format - 895ko)
Last update: July 23, 2025
- Decision n°INAO-DEC-CONT-AB-4 : Common inspection provisions for organic certification (PDF format / 2,163kb)
Last update : January 26, 2026
- Common control provisions n°INAO-DEC-CONT-AB-2 : commercial organic out-of-home catering (PDF format / 818ko)
Date: October 14, 2019 - last update: February 23, 2021
- Circular n°INAO-CIR-2021-03: Delegation of tasks to certification bodies in the field of organic farming (PDF format / 1.21mo)
Last update: January 26, 2026
- Directive n°INAO-DIR-CAC-7: General principles for the control of organic production (PDF format / 127kb)
Date: December 14, 2021