Certifier for organic food made-in-China disqualified

The American non-profit organization Organic Crop Improvement Association (OCIA) used to audit and certify the majority of organic-labelled food supplied from China, but not any more. First, consumer complaints have made retailers such as Whole Foods pull Chinese organics from their shelves. Then, since three years ago, the United States Agriculture Department has discovered problems in terms of conflicts of interests in the procedures OCIA uses in its inspection of Chinese-processed organic food. OCIA employs Chinese personnel (from the Chinese government branch of Environment Protection Agency) for the actual fieldwork of inspection, who then type up reports to OCIA agents (who have a scant presence in China). Currently, OCIA is formally disqualified for further organic-food-certification in China. Source: NYTimes