- Consumers prefer certification programs with multiple requirements, and One Health Certified™ is the only comprehensive, animal-based PVP certification program available to producers today.
- Our program is an outcomes-based continuous improvement process, unlike other generic and static certification standards. Participating producers are required to provide data and documentation, in order to evolve and adapt the standards using comprehensive insights relative to the five core principles. This helps identify scientific research needs and opportunities, with the ultimate goal of improving resources available to farmers to best manage their animals and minimize trade-offs.
- One Health Certified™ is a Process Verified Program (PVP) verified through the United States Department of Agriculture Agricultural Marketing Service (USDA-AMS) that offers a unique way to market products to customers and consumers by conducting annual audits. The advantage of completing annual audits is the ability to use the widely-recognized USDA shield logo and commodity-specific One Health Certified™ logo to market products.
Food animal producers and food purveyors are partners in a very connected food chain from farm to fork.
- One Health Certified is a comprehensive, PVP certification program with core principles that cover the entire animal rearing process.
- Many certification programs today are package-based and create competing priorities that may be detrimental to animal health and welfare, such as incentives to NOT treat animals in need to achieve label requirements. For example, under a program such as No Antibiotics Ever (NAE), if sick animals are treated with antibiotics they are no longer eligible for certification and must be diverted into a different product stream. Recent studies around veterinary perspectives on raising animals with NAE show that producers and veterinarians think there are problems with this approach and are working on solutions.
- One Health Certified is a systems-based certification program. This approach maintains a balanced, singular product stream, assuring a dependable and consistent supply chain for customers.
- One Health Certified is a transparent, open program that any farmer or producer can elect to participate in. As such, the standards are publicly available and every company is held to the same standards.
Producers pay an annual administrative fee to support the program. Pricing is established in a way that is logical for each specific protein commodity. In the case of chicken and turkey, a company pays a flat fee of $7,500 per year for each producer that has been verified in compliance with the established standards. This fee permits the use of the One Health Certified logo and label on eligible products produced in that facility. The pricing structure is being determined for other standards under development.
It’s important to avoid confusing consumers, therefore, the One Health Certified logo cannot be used with most other voluntary production label claims and logos such as Cage Free or No Antibiotics Ever. One exception allowed for dual-label use is that the One Health Certified logo can be used in tandem with the American Humane Certified label because it is one of the approved means of establishing credible animal welfare for One Health Certified.
One Health Certified is managed by the National Institute of Antimicrobial Resistance Research and Education (NIAMRRE) based at Iowa State University. NIAMRRE is a cross-sector member organization that utilizes a One Health approach to provide local, national, and international leadership in the fight against antimicrobial resistance. One Health Certified program standards are governed by a council of technical experts from multiple stakeholders with equal representation from animal agriculture, allied industry organizations, and universities.