ACA Seal and the I SEAL Alliance

by: Miriam Gyamfi, ACA Seal Marketing Coordinator

The ISEAL Alliance is a non-governmental organization whose mission is to strengthen sustainability standards systems for the benefit of people and the environment. They do that by developing codes for standard setting; they would for example evaluate the ACA Quality and Sustainability Seal and advise on the robustness of the system in terms of internal governance and monitoring, evaluation and control mechanisms. Reputable NGO’s and standard setting organizations as Fair Trade, the Rainforest Alliance or UTZ are members of the organization.

In early 2013, the ACA started to assess ISEAL membership, in an effort to further develop the scope of the ACA Quality and Sustainability Seal. The ACA Seal which is currently fully incorporating HACCP requirements into its food safety management procedures is striving to be equivalent to ISO 22,000 by the end of 2015. Being part of the ISEAL Alliance is a big step in the right direction on that road. ISEAL has developed very detailed codes on how to make any standard setting system not only effective with regards to its own objectives, but also compliant with international social and environmental regulations to guarantee comprehensive sustainability.

Since June 2013, when the ACA Seal now became a subscriber to the ISEAL Alliance, it has been making use of tutorials and other online lessons on standard development. Slowly but steadily, the ACA Quality and Sustainability Seal is integrating the necessary best practices as promoted by the ISEAL Alliance into its standards, becoming more and more a comprehensive and sustainable food safety and quality standard for not only African but also international cashew processing industries.