Material Review Confidentiality Statement
To review inputs for approval to the USDA NOP organic regulations at 7 CFR Part 205, details about ingredients and manufacturing processes are often needed. This information will be received and held in confidence by PCO. PCO will take such steps as may be reasonably necessary to prevent the disclosure of the confidential technology to a third party. PCO has developed policies and procedures for handling confidential business information. All PCO staff, contractors, and other affiliated personnel are required to sign a Confidentiality Agreement. By signing this agreement, PCO personnel agree to safeguard confidential information according to written procedures, and not to use this information for any purpose other than their work with PCO. Only personnel who have signed a Confidentiality Agreement are authorized to access confidential information.
PCO does not consider information available in the public domain to be confidential. Information required for the publishing of the PCO Materials List is not considered confidential. This includes the product’s PCO code, product name, manufacturer name and contact information, general use category and type, review date, and applicable restrictions. PCO does not have any obligation with respect to any information which: (a) is or becomes generally available to the public through no fault of PCO; (b) was rightfully in the possession of PCO prior to its receipt from the disclosing party; (c) is rightfully received by or becomes known to PCO from a source other than the disclosing party; (d) is disclosed with the prior written consent of the disclosing party; (e) is independently developed by PCO without use of the disclosing party's confidential information; or (f) is disclosed by the disclosing party to a third party without any duty of confidentiality.
PCO will disclose information if compelled by a government body to publicly disclose confidential information by a subpoena, court order, administrative hearing, or other public proceeding. As an Accredited Certifying Agent, PCO is required by the USDA National Organic Program (NOP) to disclose information as part of certification accreditation to the Secretary or the applicable State organic program's governing State official or their authorized representatives.
If the information required by PCO for a material review is considered to be proprietary information belonging to a party other than the entity requesting the review (such as the manufacturer of a particular ingredient in a multi-ingredient product), and that party does not wish to disclose the information to the entity requesting a PCO Material input review, the third party may submit a request for the material to reviewed separately and independently of the final product with applicable fees paid.
PCO will not sign any non-disclosure agreements or confidentiality agreements with individual input manufacturers. If the information above is not deemed sufficient by an input manufacturer, and the manufacturer refuses to provide the information required by PCO, the input product will be Prohibited Due to Insufficient Information. The product will not be approved for use by PCO-certified operations and applicants and will not be included on PCO’s approved material list. If PCO is unable to collect the information necessary for the re-review of a previously approved product, it will be Prohibited Due to Insufficient Information and dropped from PCO’s approved material list and included on PCO’s Add/Drop list.