May 9/Prepared Foods’ May 2011 “Market Watch” -- The USDA is warning of a “fraudulent National Organic Program (NOP) organic certificate.” Produced by an uncertified operation based in South Africa, the certificate falsely represents products as certified organic under NOP regulations.

While NOP has no evidence of any product sold, labeled or represented as organic using the fraudulent certificate, the falsification “violates the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990,” an agency release notes.