Techtron Assists Customers with Accreditations

We can alleviate the pain for our customers who want to gain accreditation for their products, by working on their behalf with the appropriate body, to substantiate the required marketing claims.

Many of our customers want to demonstrate that they are more environmentally friendly, that they are against animal cruelty, show their own customers that they are aware of sustainability issues and that they are aware of the origins of the materials contained within them. Brands are actively seeking ways to become sustainable through both packaging and material selection, that they utilise safe ingredients and that their products are not tested on animals.

We are working with brand owners, and their own consumers, who are fully informed. The raw material origin is important, and it is expected that we see the same care taken for both human and animal products. Our knowledgeable customer base believes that these accreditation bodies and societies provide real safety, reassurance and gravitas. On-pack accreditations provide customers with unique selling points when marketing the product on platforms such as Amazon.

We can provide a considerable service to our customers because there is a level of information that they then do not have to find out by working with us. Because of the expertise and size of our technical team, this is an included service.

Initially we work out what the customer’s requirements are, to establish if their requirements are achievable. Different accreditation bodies have varied conditions and milestones that must be met. It is important to match up the customer’s aims with the correct accreditation body and what they must do to achieve approval for their product.

It is really about understanding what hoops they have to go through. Because we have done this many times for our customers, we have a thorough understanding of the process.

The process can involve the following:

•  Contacting raw material suppliers, to establish if their materials are organic/vegetarian/vegan for example
• Obtaining a declaration from the raw material supplier(s), regarding the material’s origin and heritage. Typical information requests include animal testing cut off dates, identification of GMO materials, substantiation of natural content, identification of source, alcohol contents and animal derived products. Declarations are sent to the accreditation body for approval
• Sometimes there may be a requirement for the customer to go through a particular stage of the process themselves, for example when registration fees are required by the body that may be based on the brand owners turnover. Under these circumstances we simply liaise with the customer, with an NDA in place, and act as their agent
• The customer sets up an account with the accreditation body, allows us to act as an agent and then we work through the paperwork from the suppliers, check it is all filled in correctly and we send it off to the declaration body for their approval

Kevin Wright, Regulatory Manager at Techtron, says:

“Because we have all the direct contacts and own the intellectual property for our products, we know who all the suppliers are and can fast track any chasing up.  We have a short cut to our suppliers through our technical contacts and are confident that they can fulfil the accreditations that we need.

“The time involved is not onerous for us, but customers sometimes come to us feeling a bit blinded by what’s involved, but we can do this blindfolded as we’ve done it so many times before. 

“For some product accreditations an auditor may want to visit our site. During this visit they will be checking to ensure that there is segregation of materials in place. For example, between organic certified products and non-organic products, control bodies can be paper-based, audit based or a combination of both.  Standards and requirements are different for each, and we make it our job to fully understand those requirements. Techtron has a full-time team who constantly review the regulatory requirements for the products that we manufacture.”

There are now many on-pack accreditations with quality standards or technical requirements underpinning them. There are several different organisations to be able choose from to accredit on-pack marketing claims that customers may want to make. We listen to our customers’ requirements and then try to direct them to the correct body. 

Some accreditation bodies have more gravitas than others, each has a different set of fees or one-off fees for a time period, there could be a sliding fee scale, so this has a different implication to the finances of each business. Leaping Bunny’s fees are calculated on the financial turnover of the business as a whole, whereas Vegan Society, Organic, Cruelty Free, Soil Association, Halal Approval and Kosher are all different in structure, requirements and fees.

The benefits of each of these bodies will also be different and there are varied sets of brand guidelines for individual societies, there may be on-line catalogues with each accreditation and the option to advertise in shoppers’ catalogues or buying guides for consumers. There will be different logo usage guidelines, and some may only allow a general statement to be made unless certain fees are paid. There is generally more gravitas and expense in logo usage.