Every certified organic co-packer has a certifier: the organization named on its USDA record as the one that certified it. We counted them for all 1,299 co-packers in our directory. There are 27 certifiers, but three of them certify 898 plants, 69% of the total: Oregon Tilth (349), CCOF (320) and Quality Assurance International (229).
This post is for you if a co-packer has told you "we're certified organic" and you want to see it for yourself. You will get the counts, what they tell you about where you are looking, and three things to check on any co-packer's record before you send a formula or a deposit.
How we counted
Our listings come from the USDA Organic INTEGRITY Database, the public record of certified organic operations, in its monthly download of October 1, 2026. We keep United States operations whose certification and handling scope are both marked certified, and that USDA flags as a co-packer. The certifier is the name on that USDA record. Every count here is re-run by a script in our code, blog_numbers.py.
The 27 certifiers
| Certifier | Co-packers | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Oregon Tilth | 349 | 26.9% |
| CCOF | 320 | 24.6% |
| Quality Assurance International | 229 | 17.6% |
| Washington State Department of Agriculture | 85 | 6.5% |
| Organic Certifiers | 49 | 3.8% |
| Quality Certification Services | 45 | 3.5% |
| Pennsylvania Certified Organic | 32 | 2.5% |
| Global Organic Alliance | 28 | 2.2% |
| OneCert | 22 | 1.7% |
| Natural Food Certifiers | 20 | 1.5% |
| Americert International | 19 | 1.5% |
| Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association | 18 | 1.4% |
| Pro-Cert Organic Systems | 16 | 1.2% |
| Utah Department of Agriculture and Food | 10 | 0.8% |
| Idaho State Department of Agriculture | 8 | 0.6% |
| Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship | 8 | 0.6% |
| Texas Department of Agriculture | 8 | 0.6% |
| Baystate Organic Certifiers | 6 | 0.5% |
| Primus Auditing Operations | 5 | 0.4% |
| NOFA-NY Certified Organic | 5 | 0.4% |
| Organic Crop Improvement Association | 4 | 0.3% |
| Clemson University | 4 | 0.3% |
| Perry Johnson Registrars Food Safety | 3 | 0.2% |
| Ecocert | 2 | 0.2% |
| Where Food Comes From Organic | 2 | 0.2% |
| Monterey County Certified Organics | 1 | 0.1% |
| Control Union Certifications | 1 | 0.1% |
Six of the 27 are public bodies: the agriculture departments of Washington, Utah, Idaho, Iowa and Texas, and Clemson University. Together they certify 123 of the co-packers we list.
Certifiers follow geography
In 7 of the 32 states with five or more listings, one certifier certifies more than half of the co-packers we list:
- California: CCOF certifies 207 of 359.
- Washington: the Washington State Department of Agriculture certifies 81 of 106.
- Oregon: Oregon Tilth certifies 56 of 68.
- Idaho: the Idaho State Department of Agriculture certifies 8 of 14.
- Nevada: Oregon Tilth certifies 7 of 13.
- Tennessee: Quality Assurance International certifies 6 of 11.
- Massachusetts: Quality Assurance International certifies 5 of 7.
Elsewhere the picture is more mixed. In Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Certified Organic leads with 22 of 55, and in Connecticut, Baystate Organic Certifiers leads with 5 of 11.
Oregon Tilth is the most common certifier on its own in 15 of those 32 states, including New Jersey, Wisconsin, Illinois and New York, and ties for first in 4 more. Read that one with care. None of the 349 Oregon Tilth listings has a certificate link or a plant address from USDA in our directory, so each is listed at the address USDA gives, which may be a mailing address. Our post on where organic co-packers are has the full state counts.
What this means for you: if you are searching in one state, the certifier page for the leading certifier there is a fast way to see a large share of your options in one list.
How long they have held it
USDA's record gives each listing an "Effective Date of HANDLING Status". Across all 1,299 listings, the median year is 2017. 312 listings have a date before 2010, and 210 a date in 2024 or later.
A recent date is not a warning sign by itself. The date alone does not tell you how long a plant has been organic, so treat it as a question to ask, not a verdict.
Three things to check on any co-packer's record
You can do all three in a few minutes, before the first call.
1. Open the record. On 950 of our 1,299 listings, "View the USDA certificate" opens the plant's certificate in the USDA Organic INTEGRITY Database. The other 349 are the Oregon Tilth listings, which have no certificate link in our directory. For those, ask the co-packer to send its current organic certificate.
2. Check that your product is on it. Our listings show the organic products on the USDA record, copied as written, and 1,295 of the 1,299 list at least one. If your product type is nowhere on the list, that is not a no, but it is the first question for the call: "Have you made a product like mine under your organic certificate, and if not, what would it take?"
3. Note the certifier and the date. Write both down. If you will need your own organic certificate later, or your packaging names the certifier, you will want them. The date gives you a natural opener: "How long have you been co-packing organic products?"
Put together, that is three short questions for your first email: "Who certifies you, and can you send your current certificate?", "Is a product like mine on it?" and "How long have you been co-packing organic products?" How quickly a co-packer answers all three is a fair first look at how it handles paperwork.
What to do next
Our Fit Check reads every listing's certified products against what you make and quotes the evidence it found, so step 2 is done for the whole directory at once. To start from a certifier instead, the certifier index lists every one with its co-packers.
Sources
- USDA Organic INTEGRITY Database, monthly download of October 1, 2026, as imported into our directory. Every count above re-run with
python blog_numbers.pyon October 20, 2026.