The process
Three stages. The audit is the long one, and it is long because the panel is ten analytes across every subcategory a brand sells into, tested by an accredited laboratory rather than declared.
One application covers the brand and every product in it. Name the subcategories you sell into; that determines which standards apply.
Four to eight weeks. Ingredient and formulation review, then the ten-analyte panel run at an accredited laboratory on each product form.
Licensing and permissions letters issue per product, the public brand page goes live, and lot surveillance begins.
Artwork
Program Manual Part 2.5 governs who may display the mark and what may be claimed alongside it, but sets no minimum size, clear space or color-reproduction rules. Those belong in a mark usage guide that does not exist yet. Until it does, this page states no dimensions rather than inventing them — a printer following a fabricated spec would be following nothing.
Eligibility
A product is eligible when a published subcategory standard exists for its form. Standards publish per subcategory, never as a category-wide release, so a subcategory can open long before the rest of its category does. An application is not charged until the standard for that subcategory publishes.
There is no pass-by-declaration route. A brand cannot certify by attesting that it meets the standard; it certifies by testing to it at an accredited laboratory and submitting the results. That is the whole difference between this mark and a self-affixed claim.
HMTc can be held alone or bundled with Certified Paleo, KETO Certified and Grain-Free Certified on a single application. Bundling reduces audit duplication but does not change the analyte panel or the thresholds.
Fee calculator
Four questions. Fees are annual, quoted in USD, and scale with the applicant’s gross annual revenue so that certification stays reachable for a small brand.
The dollar figure per revenue band is computed by the calculator on paleofoundation.com and is not published as a table. It is deliberately absent rather than estimated — a fee schedule a brand budgets against cannot be a guess.
What the fee covers
Renewal reminders go out sixty, thirty and ten days before a certificate lapses. Renewal for a brand in good standing is a short-form process; the analyte panel is re-run, but the audit is not repeated from zero.
Questions
Can I certify several products on one application?
Yes. Certification covers the brand, and a single application can include many products. Each product still receives its own certificate against the standard for its subcategory and basis, because those differ per product form.
How long does it take?
Four to eight weeks from submission for standard processing. Rush options run ten business days for an additional $5,000 or three business days for $10,000, for time-sensitive launches.
What happens when the certificate expires?
Renewal reminders go out sixty, thirty and ten days before expiry. Renewal is streamlined for a brand in good standing, and multi-year renewals carry the same 10% and 20% discounts.
Are there discounts for small brands?
Pricing is revenue-based rather than flat, so a company with lower gross annual revenue pays a lower annual fee. That is the mechanism by which certification stays reachable rather than a separate discount.
Which programs can be combined?
Certified Paleo, KETO Certified and Grain-Free Certified can be held together, and Heavy Metal Tested can be added for eligible product categories. Bundling reduces duplicated audit work; it does not relax any threshold.
What if my subcategory has no published standard yet?
Register interest in it. Standards publish per subcategory the moment each is defensibly ready, never as a category-wide release, so a subcategory can publish long before the rest of its category. An application is not charged until the standard for that subcategory publishes.
Applications are administered through the Institute of Contaminant Standards (ICS) portal, which also issues permissions letters and holds the lot record once a certificate is in force.