Responsible Animal Fiber
Responsible Animal Fiber (RAF) is a family of global voluntary standards from Textile Exchange that focus on animal welfare, land management and social welfare from field to final product. RAF includes the Responsible Wool Standard (RWS), Responsible Mohair Standard (RMS) and Responsible Alpaca Standard (RAS) for primary production and the Content Claim Standard (CCS) for certification of subsequent steps in the chain to the final product..
OIA, a leading certification company, is accredited to audit primary production against these standards, and any stage of the chain of custody (handling, industrialization, packaging and marketing) to ensure that program requirements are met.
What are the RAF goals?
- Provide an industry tool to identify best agricultural practices in animal production;
- Ensure wool/fiber comes from responsibly treated animals;
- Ensure that fields follow improved land management methods that protect soil health, biodiversity and native species.
Each standard includes animal welfare requirements that must be met for fields to be certified. The criteria are designed to support the five freedoms:
- freedom from hunger and thirst;
- freedom from discomfort;
- freedom from pain, injury or illness;
- freedom from fear and anguish;
- freedom to express normal behavior
What advantages does it have?
- Protects animal welfare
- Preserves the health of the earth
- Traceability of the supply chain
- Certification guarantee
- Secure communication
How is the certification process?
- To begin the certification process, you will meet with OIA’s team of professionals who will guide you through the requirements of the standards.
- An application for certification will be completed and the OIA affiliation contract will be signed. Together, documents and information will be exchanged according to the chosen standard so that we can get to know the project to be certified, which will help us plan the first audit.
- As a result of the audit, OIA’s team of professionals reviews and determines compliance with the chosen standard.
- The project that completes a successful certification process receives our opinion and certificate of the scope that has been requested, and from then on it can show and share with its clients the products certified by OIA.
- OIA will keep the certification in force by requesting an annual renewal process through the evaluation of our inspectors and our entire team to provide you with the best certification service.
Accreditations
