The standard
What a seal is a statement about.
This is the set of definitions and evidence rules behind every certificate we issue. Where a term is defined here, that definition is the one we apply: a maker certifies against it, a reviewer assesses against it, and a customer can read it.
Version 1.10 · Last updated 25 September 2026
1 · What a certification is
Certification is a statement that named evidence was reviewed and found sufficient for a defined claim, for a defined product line, at a defined time. It is not a guarantee of quality, safety, taste or fitness for purpose, and it is not an endorsement of the business behind the product.
A certificate runs for the period printed on it, and it is current only while it appears as active in the public register. What happens when an application is not approved, and how a decision can be appealed, is set out in the terms of service.
2 · Where it's made
A maker certifies where a product is made by where the primary assembly or manufacturing of the product takes place. That is the location where the product becomes the product it is sold as: where the ingredients, components or materials are brought together and worked into the finished item.
It is not the location of a head office, a brand, a warehouse, a packaging supplier, a fulfilment centre or a point of dispatch. A product assembled in one country from materials bought in another is made where the assembly happened — and the certificate says so.
3 · Origin: "Made in" and "Product of"
Two claims say where a product comes from. Both require that primary assembly or transformation happens in the location named. They differ in how much of the cost of making the product has to have been incurred there, and the maker states the number rather than choosing a word:
- Made in [location] — at least 51% of the direct production costs are incurred there.
- Product of [location] — at least 98% of the direct production costs are incurred there. This is the bar the legal "Product of Canada" claim sets, applied as our own standard.
Direct production costs are the materials, components, packaging, labour and services that go into making the product. Machinery is not one of them: equipment may be bought, leased or brought in from anywhere. Overheads, marketing and distribution are not direct production costs either.
Neither claim is a statement that everything came from the location. It is the share the maker states, and the share is printed on the certificate — "Product of Ontario, Canada — 98% of direct production costs incurred there" — so our seal can be read against what a shelf label guarantees rather than assumed to match it. A maker who qualifies for Product of also qualifies for Made in, and the stricter claim clears the lower one, so nobody applies for both.
Evidence. Made in requires the assembly location, the stated share, and the cost breakdown behind it. Product of requires the same, a full cost breakdown naming where each cost was incurred, and the sourcing of the materials, components and packaging: anything bought outside the location counts against the percentage. If the share does not reach the bar the claim is for, the claim has to be stated as what it actually is — such as made in X from Y ingredients, or assembled in X — and the certificate records the wording the maker can support.
4 · Recycled content
To certify recycled content, a maker must produce evidence that the materials used were obtained through a registered recycled content supplier, or through other documented recycled means. A stated percentage is always required: we certify the number, not the word.
Other recycled means covers material a maker reclaims, reprocesses or diverts themselves, evidenced by collection, intake and processing records. A supplier's assurance alone is not evidence. What we accept is a certificate, a registration or chain-of-custody document, or a dated record of the material showing where it came from and how much of it there was.
5 · Consumables and hard goods
Products that go on the skin — cosmetics and anything else applied to the body — are certified product line by product line, because the claim printed on the label is what gets assessed against the evidence.
Hard goods and permanent crafts, such as pottery, ceramics and jewellery, may be certified either way. The vendor certification is enough for a maker who sells pieces under the business's own name: it covers the business, where it works and how it works, and it can carry the craft claims — handmade, hand-thrown, made by the owner and the rest.
A hard-goods maker can also certify a product line, in exactly the same way a maker of cosmetics does, so that a named piece carries its own number and its own record. A hard-goods line is certified on its materials and process answers rather than on an ingredient list: what the piece is made from, where those materials come from, whether animal materials or animal-derived processing aids are involved, and whether the piece is used with food or worn against the body. The claims written around ingredients rest on those answers. A line that has answered none of those questions is treated as a consumable line and is asked for the ingredient list instead.
6 · Claims, and what each one needs
Every claim carries its own evidence requirements, and each is assessed on its own. A claim is certified only for the product line it was assessed against, and it is never extended by implication — not to a variant, not to a sibling product, not from one year to the next without renewal.
Where a claim is refused by name, it is not certified in any form and it may not be printed as a certified claim. Claims that cannot be evidenced are not softened, reworded or carried over; they are left off the certificate.
The claims library lists every claim we can certify, with what each one means, the evidence it asks for, and whether it is carried on a vendor certificate or a product line.
7 · Documents and records
Documents submitted with an application are held on our own systems and remain available in the maker's account, so that the record behind a certificate can be returned to at renewal, on appeal, or years later when a buyer or a retailer asks.
They are not published and they are not shared. They are not passed to anyone outside the review, they are not sold, and they never appear in the register. What the public sees is the certificate: the holder, the product line, the claims certified, where it is made, the number and the dates it is valid for.
When a certificate ends — by expiry, revocation or withdrawal — the evidence documents behind it are deleted. What stays on file is the decision record: what was claimed, what was decided, the reason given and the dates, which is what a dispute would turn on. The privacy policy sets out the detail.
8 · Independence
ArtisanCheck is independent. We do not review, rank, score, promote or sell placement. We do not accept payment for a favourable outcome, and no part of a reviewer's arrangement with us depends on the decision they reach. We validate the information supplied to us and certify accordingly.
A certificate is a record, not advertising, and it cannot be bought by anyone who would not otherwise hold one. That is the only reason a seal is worth anything.
9 · Charges
All charges are in Canadian dollars (CAD). This applies to the vendor certification, to each product line certification and to memberships, and it applies to renewals. Prices are published on the pricing section and the membership page, and the amount charged is the amount published at the time of application or renewal.
10 · How to read a certificate
The number is the point of the seal. Enter the six digits in the register or at verify a seal and you will see who holds it, what it covers, what was certified, where the product is made and how long the certificate runs.
A seal without a number, a number that does not resolve, or a certificate shown as expired or revoked is not a certification — whatever it is printed on.
11 · What we are not
ArtisanCheck is not a regulator, a government body or a public authority, and we do not act for one. We are not accredited to ISO/IEC 17065 or to any other accreditation programme, and we do not claim to be: a certificate issued under this standard is not an accreditation, and it must not be described as one.
Certification is not a safety approval, a regulatory clearance, or a licence to sell. It is a statement about evidence, and it says nothing about whether a product is safe, legal or fit for its purpose. Those remain the maker's responsibility, and the law where the product is sold.
What we do hold to is on the record. Decisions are made by the review team and not by anyone with a commercial interest in the outcome. Every decision carries a written reason and is recorded against the application. The documents behind it are seen only by the review, and opening one is logged. No fee buys a favourable decision. If we ever seek accreditation, ISO/IEC 17065 is the framework we would be measured against, and the record-keeping it expects — reviewer competence, the separation of review from decision, and documented complaints handling — is work we would take on rather than claim today.
12 · Versions of this standard
This standard is versioned, and the version in force is Version 1.10, published on 25 September 2026. Every certificate issued today was assessed against it, and the version a certificate was assessed against is part of its record.
Changelog. Version 1.0 — first published. It defines where a product is made by where the primary assembly or manufacturing takes place; it sets the resource rule for claiming 100% from a location; it sets out what evidence a recycled content claim requires; and it separates how consumables and hard goods are certified. Version 1.1 — no requirement of this standard changed. The number moves with the set of documents a maker accepts together, because the privacy policy published alongside it was revised: measurement is now described in it in full, and a maker accepting the terms accepts that description with them. Version 1.4 — no requirement of this standard changed either, and the number moves with the same set of documents. The privacy policy was revised again: advertising measurement is now described in it, it is asked for separately from measurement rather than bundled with it, and it is refused unless a visitor turns it on. Versions 1.5, 1.6 and 1.7 — no requirement of this standard changed. The number moved with the same set of documents: the privacy policy was revised to name the contact form, then writing to account holders, then data sharing and the messaging program. Version 1.8 changes a requirement. The origin claims are two claims rather than one with a variant. "Made in [location]" now requires at least 51% of the direct production costs to be incurred in the location named, and "Product of [location]" at least 98% — the bar the legal "Product of Canada" claim sets. The share the maker states is printed on the certificate, so the two cannot be read as one. A cost breakdown is required for both and the sourcing of materials for Product of; the resource rule for claiming 100% from a location is withdrawn, because a percentage printed on the certificate says more than the word did. A maker who qualifies for Product of clears Made in, so nobody applies for both. Version 1.9 — no requirement of this standard changed. The number moves with the same set of documents, because the privacy policy was revised: the answers typed into an application are saved as they are typed, before any account is made, so that an application somebody stopped halfway through can be read and picked up rather than lost with the tab it was typed in, and the policy now says what that copy holds, how long it stays, and that it goes as soon as the answers become an application. Version 1.10 — no requirement of this standard changed. The number moves with the same set of documents, because the privacy policy was revised again: an applicant can give a mobile number and ask for updates on their application by text, and the policy now says that the number and the answer are part of the application, and that every one of those messages is written and sent by a person — none of them is generated automatically, and nobody is texted who did not ask for it.
When the standard changes. A change is published as a new version with its own date, and it applies from the day it is published. A certificate already issued stays valid for its period on the version it was assessed against, and it is not revoked for a requirement that did not exist when it was issued. Where a change would affect an existing certificate at renewal, we tell the affected makers before the renewal falls due, say what has changed and what the evidence would need to be.