Voluntary Certification Systems Research Articles

Recent advancements in meat traceability, authenticity verification, and voluntary certification systems

The growing demand for transparency in the food industry has led to significant advancements in meat traceability. Ensuring the authenticity and origin of meat products is critical for consumer trust, public health, and compliance with regulations. This paper reviews recent innovations in meat traceability, with a focus on blockchain technology as a novel approach to ensuring traceability. Additionally, advanced methods for verifying meat authenticity and origin, such as isotope fingerprinting, DNA analysis, and spectroscopic methods, are discussed. The role of voluntary certification schemes in enhancing traceability and authenticity verification in the meat industry is also explored. The findings highlight the importance of integrating cutting-edge technologies and certification schemes to build a robust and transparent meat supply chain.

The problem of psychologist certification: A comparative analysis of international experience

As the war in Ukraine poses a significant threat to national mental health, professional psychological support has become more crucial than ever for Ukrainians. The need to regulate the profession and establish a safe environment for consumers of psychological services has led to the implementation of psychologist licensing and certification. In Ukraine, this system is imperfect and requires optimisation, one of the ways to achieve which is to study and adapt the best international experience. In light of this, the aim of this article was to examine the characteristics of psychologist certification in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, the European Union, and China to identify prospects for developing the psychologist certification system in Ukraine. The methodological tools used included the dialectical method, as well as systemic, informational, theological, and functional approaches, which allowed for the presentation of the features of certification in the current conditions of professionalisation of psychological activities. It has been established that certification has historically been one of the methods for measuring competence in professional psychology. For this purpose, professional associations create voluntary certification systems. The features of the most developed psychologist certification systems (USA, Canada, and the United Kingdom) were examined, and an attempt was made to compare them with similar certification models in the European Union and China. Common requirements for psychologist certification in these countries were identified, including requirements for the content and duration of specialised education; requirements for supervised psychological practice; requirements for professional development in both practical and research areas; and requirements for the moral and ethical qualities of the psychologist. Conceptualising and measuring psychologist competence is an ongoing dynamic process as the field of psychological practice continues to evolve. The practical value of the results lies in their potential use to identify ways to improve the national psychologist certification system and the possibilities for transitioning from voluntary certification to mandatory certification

Peculiarities of safety assessment and quality assurance for automotive vehicles produced in Russia under present-day conditions

The paper is dedicated to systematization and description of technical regulation measures taken by the Government of the Russian Federation in the field of automotive vehicle safety assessment to ensure stable production under the sanctions imposed by unfriendly countries, interruption of logistic chains in vehicle component supplies and deficiency of such components. The paper analyzes differences in technical requirements for new-type vehicles released for circulation in the territory of Russia, and procedures to assess compliance with those requirements stated by the Eurasian Economic Union Technical Regulations “On Wheeled Vehicles Safety” and temporary procedure for application of obligatory requirements for wheeled vehicles and their compliance assessment introduced by the decree of the Russian Government, as well as dynamic of changes in such differences. There is also a description given for the quality management systems voluntary certification system developed within the Association of Russian Automakers (OAR), and proposals drawn up to supplement Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 719 dated July 17, 2015, On Confirmation of Industrial Manufacturing in the Russian Federation with conditions for additional scoring in case vehicle assembly plants have a certain number of Tier I suppliers that have certified their quality system in terms of compliance with the OAR voluntary certification system

A Bibliometric Analysis of Organic Farming and Voluntary Certifications

Organic farming, characterised by environmentally friendly and sustainable agricultural practices, has gained significant attention throughout the years due to its potential to address critical issues such as food security, environmental sustainability, and public health. Voluntary certification systems play a pivotal role in ensuring the integrity and quality of organic products in the market. Understanding the research landscape surrounding organic farming and voluntary certifications is of paramount importance for scholars, policy makers, farmers, and consumers. In this context, the present study utilizes a bibliometric approach to achieve a deeper understanding of the trends, key contributors, and key terms in these domains via a bibliometric analysis in order to contribute to the broader goals of promoting sustainable agriculture and informed consumer choices. The evolution of the field is traced, shedding light on seminal papers, influential authors, and prolific journals. The research type is quantitative, using Web of Science, VOSviewer, and bibliometric study as instruments. The results show that, for both terms “organic farming” and “voluntary certifications”, papers usually involve three or more authors and use other sources as the unit of analysis, leaving room for improvement and the filling of a gap in the specialty literature. This insight can guide future researchers and policymakers in focusing on critical areas within organic farming and certification systems, further advancing the field and addressing pressing issues related to sustainability, quality, and consumer awareness.

Defining journalism: How a new approach to a definition could revolutionize media freedom

Defining who is a journalist is now fraught with difficulty and may well be impossible. The digital revolution has made it possible for anyone with a smart phone to create journalism-like content without necessarily adhering to any of the accepted formal conventions of journalism. Any legal definition that uses that approach is fraught with difficulty, and risks including people who should probably not be covered by the law, or ruling out those who should. This article proposes a novel approach, by considering journalism as a formalized process for gathering, organizing and presenting information according to recognized standards and ethics. Such an approach could form the centrepiece of a Media Freedom Act, and give the industry incentive to respond with a system of voluntary certification that could identify those people who understand and apply those standards and ethics, and whose work would thus deserve the protection of the law.

On the National Standard of the Russian Federation for the Antimonopoly Compliance System in an Organization

The article discusses the prerequisites for the adoption and key provisions of the new national standard of the Russian Federation GOST R 70433-2022 "System of internal compliance with the requirements of antimonopoly legislation (antimonopoly compliance system) in the organization", approved by order of Rosstandart No. 1181-st dated October 25, 2022. Effective January 1st, 2024.The standard was developed for the first time at RNIIIS by order of the Association of Compliance Managers in accordance with the National Standardization Program for 2022 (code 1.0.481-1.038.22).The author justifies the need to take a number of measures to implement GOST R 70433-2022, in particular, to: develop a package of standards that specify the rules, procedures and documents of the antimonopoly compliance system for certain categories of controlled entities; generalization of the practice of voluntary application of this GOST and its further improvement; creation of a system of voluntary certification of compliance of the antimonopoly compliance system in the organization with the provisions of the standard; preparation and approval of similar standards of the Union State, EAEU, CIS, SCO and BRICS.

ОЦЕНКА РЕЗУЛЬТАТИВНОСТИ СТРАТЕГИЧЕСКОГО ПЛАНИРОВАНИЯ УСТОЙЧИВОГО РАЗВИТИЯ РЕГИОНА НА ОСНОВЕ СЕРТИФИКАЦИИ

The article considers strategic planning of sustainable development of the region as an object of regulatory regulation, concludes that, along with the adopted laws, presidential decrees, resolutions of the Government of the Russian Federation, standardization becomes an effective planning tool, and provides standards for the sustainable development of administrative-territorial entities. To assess the effectiveness of the application of standards for sustainable development, the authors make recommendations on the formation, along with the certification system operating at the international level, of a proposal for a voluntary national certification system, and the organizational structure of certification participants is also proposed.

Determining the directions of forming the institutional environment of standardization in the sphere of tourism and related services in the conditions of an unstable economic situation

The article presents the results of studying the application of national and interstate standards in the field of tourism and related services and the need to update them in an unstable economic situation based on a survey of representatives of regional authorities in the tourism sector, tourism industry facilities, educational and expert organizations. It has been established that most of the documentation in the field of standardization of tourism activities regulates general issues. A number of national standards of the Russian Federation in the field of tourism need to be substantially revised, taking into account changes in the legislation in the field of tourism. In connection with the voluntary nature of the application of standardization documents, it is advisable to expand the practice of voluntary certification systems in the field of tourism.

Improving Indonesia’s timber legality and sustainability verification system: Proposals based on case studies of natural forest-, corporate tree plantation- and smallholder-based value chains

All Indonesian wood value chains are regulated by a national Timber Legality and Sustainability Verification System (SVLK), based on timber legality and forest sustainability standards. We draw on three prior case studies, of natural forest-, corporate plantation-, and smallholder- based wood products value chains, to investigate SVLK architecture, implementation and compliance; and on regulatory theory to interpret these results and suggest how SVLK might be improved. Case study results demonstrate that SVLK has fostered legality and sustainability compliance in the natural forest- and corporate plantation-based value chains dominated by large-scale actors, but not in the smallholder-based chain in which the majority of actors are also small-scale. Results also reveal problematic elements of SVLK related to the roles of both large- and small- scale actors, legality and sustainability standards, a fragmented wood traceability system, inadequate independent monitoring and witness auditing, ineffective compliance mechanisms, and small-scale actors. Recent revisions of SVLK have not addressed these limitations, and we propose improvements: revisiting national legality and sustainability standards, placing more emphasis on field performance in sustainability assessments, limiting auditors’ flexibility, integrating all online wood systems and limiting access to only SVLK-verified actors, adopting a product classification, and increasing resources for and the frequency of witness audit and independent monitoring. Stronger cooperation between responsible Ministries and agencies is necessary to improve compliance. SVLK could learn from and cooperate with voluntary certification systems to develop more ‘joined up’ timber legality and forest governance regimes in Indonesia.

Health Educators in State/Local Public Health Departments: Training Needs and Awareness of Emerging Areas of Public Health Practice.

Although great progress has been made to define the field of health education and provide a voluntary certification system for professionals, research about the governmental health educator and health education specialist workforce is limited. The 2017 PH WINS (Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey) provides valuable data on understanding the workforce demographics, attitudes, and training needs of governmental public health workers, including health educators, and informs future investments in workforce development efforts nationally. The purpose of this article is to examine demographics, job engagement and satisfaction, training needs, certification, and other characteristics of health educators and certified health education specialists (CHES) from PH WINS. We analyzed the data to describe the health educator workforce and compared it with the national governmental workforce across a range of variables. Compared with the national 2017 PH WINS sample, health educators were relatively younger, more ethnically diverse, more likely to be educated with an advanced degree, and were predominately employed in local versus state public health agencies. Health educators sampled were significantly more knowledgeable of all public health concepts compared with the national 2017 PH WINS respondent workforce. Comparison of CHES versus non-CHES professionals is also provided, along with practice and policy implications based on the data. This is the first detailed analyses of health educators in state and local health departments, with important findings and implications related to workforce composition, satisfaction, retention, and training. Further cross-sectional workforce research is needed to understand the current strengths and gaps in the health education workforce.

Impact of a leaf‐cutting ant (Atta sexdens L.) on a Pinus taeda plantation: A 6 year‐long study

AbstractLeaf‐cutting ants are the most economically important pest of plantation forests in the Neotropics. These social insects can defoliate whole trees, reducing their growth ability and occasionally causing tree mortality. Control of leaf‐cutting ants in plantations is mainly carried out by using insecticides such as sulfluramid or fipronil. Foresters that adhere to voluntary sustainability certification systems are requested to implement integrated pest management programmes that reduce the use of insecticides. However, this approach is much delayed since it requires a better understanding of ant ecology, including quantitative data on the long‐term impact that leaf‐cutting ants have on tree plantations. In this study, we show, for the first time, the results on the long‐term impact of Atta sexdens L. on a Pinus taeda L. plantation in NE Argentina. The annual growth in diameter, height, volume and mortality of P. taeda trees in two 11 ha stands were evaluated up to the middle of the harvest cycle (i.e. 6 years). One of the stands had no control of A. sexdens nests, and in the other stand, all ant nests were removed (total control). After six years since planting, P. taeda trees show significant reductions in total height (19%), diameter at breast height (4.4%) and wood volume (21%) in sites with A. sexdens present. Moreover, tree mortality reached 31.2% when ants were present. Forest managers could use these results to improve their integrated management programmes, by better adjusting their economic damage threshold parameters.

Funding Research Certification Programs in the Sphere of Tourism on the Example of Developed and Developing Countries

Tourism is a dynamically developing branch of the national economy of both developed and developing countries, which, accordingly, have the necessary potential of recreational resources. The purpose of standardization in the field of tourist services is to increase the level of safety of a tourist product or a separate tourist service, to ensure the declared level of quality, as well as to protect the interests of consumers of tourist services from unfair competition in the market. Compliance of tourist services sold to the consumer with the requirements of legislative and regulatory documents, established standards is confirmed by a certificate issued by an authorized certification body. One of the effective methods of branding of the territory (region) is outsourcing of foreign services of certification, standardization and Metrology, including in the field of tourism. In this regard, the issues of financing of certification, standardization and Metrology processes in the field of tourism are particularly relevant. It is worth noting that in the situation of developing countries, where the national system of voluntary certification is not always trusted by foreign investors, the most relevant analysis of the best practices of developed countries and the outsourcing of relevant services from specialized transnational corporations. In this study, we analyzed the certification programs in the field of tourism and their financing models, as well as clarified the role of outsourcing of foreign certification services, standardization and Metrology in the field of branding of the territory and developed recommendations for optimizing financial flows. The results of the study will be useful to the General scientific community around the world.

Analysis of market prospects for bakery products based on the ranking of bakery producers in the region

According to the result of the study based on a comprehensive multidimensional comparative assessment and rating of Vologda enterprises – producers of bakery products participating in the system of voluntary certification of food products "Real Vologda Product", the authors have analyzed the prospects for the development of this industry in the region. They used the following research methods: questionnaire survey methods, comparative overall assessment, and rating assessment. The study is based on the results of a specially organized marketing survey of consumer preferences. This article presents key aspects of the authors' comprehensive assessment of commodity producers based on the analysis of economic potential and the position of consumers of products as factors of sustainable development of enterprises. As a validation of the proposed methodology of multidimensional comparative rating, which includes the analysis of the financial condition of the research subjects and assessment of consumer preferences, the researchers carried out a qualitative characterization of the "Real Vologda Product" brand actors engaged in the production of bakery products. The article revealed the structural features of the producers of this commodity group in terms of their influence on the development of the regional bakery market. The study identified the main problems of the economic development of enterprises-producers of bakery products, noted the factors of demand for their products from the local consumer, identified the prospects for sustainable development and stated the ways to solve the problems identified.

ИСПОЛЬЗОВАНИЕ РЕГИОНАЛЬНЫХ ВОЗМОЖНОСТЕЙ ДЛЯ ПОВЫШЕНИЯ КАЧЕСТВА, БЕЗОПАСНОСТИ И КОНКУРЕНТОСПОСОБНОСТИ ПРОДУКЦИИ И УСЛУГ

The article considers the possibilities of using the potential of the region to improve the quality, safety and competitiveness of products and services provided. The authors consider the main factors influencing the solution of the problem to be: the use of regional infrastructure; scientific, technical, organizational and economic opportunities, information activities, training events and consumer market protection. In addition, the article suggests the areas of work of executive authorities to improve the quality and competitiveness at the regional level and provides a model of a regional system of voluntary certification of products and services, which allows to significantly mobilize the regional capabilities of any administrative-territorial entity.

От декларации и сертификации соответствия к цифровизации и интеллектуализации управления качеством и конкурентной способностью морской техники

A special place in the way of import substitution, digitalization and intellectualization of marine equipment belongs to the declaration and certification of compliance, ensuring competitive ability. Systematically holistically address the challenge of ensuring competitiveness and technological development of sea ergatic systems and systems proposed on the basis of transparent evaluation and digitization quality of goods and services with the addition of a system of voluntary and compulsory certification of conformity system the ranking of quality certification, which practically provide an effective system of quality management and the competitiveness of marine equipment.

Method for Preserving High Conservation Value Forests in the Prichulym Taiga of Tomsk Region During Logging

The paper presents a method to preserve high conservation value forests in accordance with the international certification system of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) in the Prichulym taiga of Tomsk region during logging. The taiga landscapes in the area of Prichulym’e are unique due to natural monuments, reserves, and specially protected natural areas with rare species of animals, birds, plants and valuable coniferous stands. These territories included in the forest fund of Tomsk region demand increased attention and systematic control, especially during logging and timber harvesting. At the first stage of the study, forest areas in the operational forests of the Zyryanskiy forestry in Tomsk region, leased by Sibirles OOO for logging and timber harvesting, were investigated. Based on the results of the study, some forest areas were referred to the category of high conservation value forests in accordance with the above-mentioned voluntary international certification system that implies an important function of protecting habitats of rare and endangered species of animals and plants, including those listed in the Red Book and regionally significant species. In such forests, logging and any type of felling are prohibited. Thus, these areas were conditionally excluded from the list of forests allowed for final felling. The results of the independent monitoring performed by the authors allowed the following conclusion: no violations were found in logging activities of Sibirles OOO that leased the parts of the forest in Zyryanskiy district for logging and timber harvesting. On the one hand, such joint activities and monitoring are economically costly; on the other hand, they are important and significant for further identification of the places abundant in unique flora and fauna.

Проблемы функционирования и перспективы развития сертификации в строительстве

The article presents an overview of the state of the market of mandatory and voluntary certification in construction on the territory of the Russian Federation. The key unresolved problems of the existing conformity assessment systems are identified. Based on the analysis carried out, there are proposed some mechanisms and ways of solving these problems, which would help restoring trust in voluntary certification systems among both active market participants and ordinary consumers of certification objects.

РАЗРАБОТКА СТАНДАРТНЫХ ОБРАЗЦОВ СОСТАВА ЖАРОСТОЙКИХ СПЛАВОВ НА ОСНОВЕ НИКЕЛЯ ДЛЯ СПЕКТРАЛЬНОГО АНАЛИЗА КАТОДОВ, ИСПОЛЬЗУЕМЫХ ДЛЯ ИОННО-ПЛАЗМЕННЫХ ПОКРЫТИЙ РАБОЧИХ И СОПЛОВЫХ ЛОПАТОК ГТД

In the work, the development of technologies for the manufacture and production of standard samples of heat-resistant nickel-based alloys: SDP-1, SDP-2, VSPD-9, VZhL-2, AZh-8. Developed and certified by MI 1.2.027–2011 «Method of measuring alloying elements by x-ray fluorescence method in heat-resistant alloys» establishes the measurement of the dimensions of alloying elements in heat-resistant nickel-based alloys by x-ray fluorescence method. The registration of the RSA of heat-resistant nickel-based alloys SDP-1, SDP-2, VSPD-9, VZhL-2, AZh-8 in the System of voluntary certification of standard samples of materials and materials.

System of voluntary certification of seed potatoes in the United Kingdom

System of voluntary certification of seed potatoes in the United Kingdom

Solutions of the HACCP issues in live kvass production

Currently, one of the main tasks facing manufacturers is the development and implementation of the HACCP system in the production of high-quality food products. In Russia the conformity of HACCP systems is confirmed by certification. In February 2001, the Gosstandart of Russia registered the HACCP voluntary certification system. It’s purpose is to control all hazardous factors that are likely to threaten the safety of food products. The article discusses the issue associated with solving the problems of ensuring safety of live kvass production at all technological stages. In our research a block diagram of the technological process for the production of «Maykopsky Chestny» kvass at LLC «MPC» Maykop Brewery plant has been analyzed and compared with the standard kvass production scheme. Potentially dangerous factors (physical, chemical, biological) have been analyzed. Critical control points (CCP) have been determined at certain stages of the technological process on the basis of the list of significant hazardous factors. The «Decision tree» method has been (GOST R 51705.1-2001) to select critical control points. This method makes it possible to determine whether this stage of the technological process is critical. The CCP have been determined by analyzing each considered hazardous factor separately and considering all the operations included in the production process diagram sequentially. In the research the situations have been considered that might reveal exceedance of fixed critical limits in the CCP and for this purpose corrective actions have been developed. The research results on the development of the HACCP system at LLC «MPK» Maykop Brewery plant will make it possible to obtain high quality live kvass.