California Made

Products must meet the following requirements to qualify for the program:

• The product must be "substantially made" in California in accordance with California Government Code section 12098.10 et seq. For purposes of the program, "substantially made" means completing an act that adds at least 51 percent of a final product’s wholesale value by manufacture assembly, fabrication, or production to create a final, recognizable product. This does not include the act of packaging a product.
• The product must be able to lawfully use a "Made in U.S.A." label pursuant to Section 17533.7 of California's Business and Professions Code.
• An annual fee must be paid, ranging from $100 to $150, depending on the number of products in an application.
• Certification from a third-party is required at least once every three years.

Note: Food and agricultural products are excluded. These products are under the CA Grown program and, therefore, do not qualify for CA Made. For products with recycled materials, the origin of the recycled materials may be based on the location where those materials were produced (i.e., California, another state, or in another country). Ultimately, it is the third-party certifier's responsibility to make this determination based on their certification methodology.

Eligible applicants may include sole proprietors, corporations, partnerships, or any other business entity type that is legally authorized to do business in California.

Third-Party Certification

The statute for CA Made indicates that a qualified third-party certifier is an "individual, group, or association that possesses a professional license, certification, or other equivalent documentation indicating sufficient training, education, or expertise to perform a regulatory compliance audit." The definition of "third-party certifier" in the final adopted regulations includes three additional criteria:

1. Legally and financially separate from the applicant;
2. "Familiar" with the product being certified, meaning the "third-party certifier" has sufficient knowledge about the supply chain of the specified product(s) to verify the source of the product components in order to perform a third-party regulatory audit as set forth in Government Code section 12098.10 et seq.; and,
3. Legally authorized to operate in California.

Applicants will provide the third-party certifier with the CA Made Third-Party Certification Form to complete and sign. The applicant will upload the completed and signed CA Made Third-Party Certification Form to their application before submitting it via the website.

Finding a Third-Party Certifier

To obtain a third-party certification an applicant may want to contact a certified public accountant, attorney, industry association and/or supply chain specialist, among other certification bodies. GO-Biz will list third-party certifiers below to assist applicants in obtaining the required certification. Please note that GO-Biz does not approve, select, endorse, or provide oversight of any third-party certifiers, including those listed on this website. Third-party certifiers do not receive funding from GO-Biz. GO-Biz is not responsible for verifying product compliance or applicant and third-party certifier compliance. A business or third-party certifier that does not follow the program’s requirements could become subject to a lawsuit from another entity.

If you are interested in certifying businesses for the CA Made program, please visit our section on Becoming a Third-Party Certifier.

Applying for the CA Made label requires the following steps:

To obtain third-party certification, applicants will provide a third-party certifier with the CA Made Third-Party Certification Form. The applicant will upload a completed and signed CA Made Third-Party Certification Form to their application and submit it via the website.

To complete an application, applicants will visit the online CA Made Application Form and create an account profile. Applicants will be asked to provide the following:

1. Contact information (legal entity business name, fictitious business name, contact name, primary business address in California, phone number, email address, and website). Note: A business website is required to participate in the program.
2. Type of business entity (sole proprietorship, corporation, limited liability company, limited partnership, general partnerships, or limited liability partnership).
3. Ability to confirm that the applicant is legally authorized to do business in California (this includes any licenses, registrations, or permits required by Federal, state, and/or local governments).
4. Names of all product(s) for which the applicant is seeking the CA Made label, categories the product(s) fall(s) under, and a brief description of the product(s).
5. Digital photo(s) of the product(s) to upload to the website.
6. Uploaded certification form(s) signed by a third-party certifier for the product(s) described in the application.
7. Any other information on their product(s) for marketing purposes.
8. Business biography for website listing (must be between 120 and 1,000 characters).

If an application is submitted and approved, the following steps will take place:

1. GO-Biz will assess an annual fee to participate in the program. The fee will be payable by check and will be determined for each licensee based on the number of products that are included in an approved application. The fee schedule is below.
   
   

   Number of Products	Annual Fee
   1	$100
   2	$125
   3 or more	$150

   
   
2. Once the initial fee is paid, GO-Biz will issue a licensing agreement to be signed electronically by the applicant and GO-Biz. The licensing agreement will expire three years after the date of its execution. View a sample licensing agreement. Note: The actual licensing agreement is an electronic document.
   
   
3. Once the licensing agreement is signed by both parties, GO-Biz will email the CA Made label to the licensee and add the licensee's product(s) and business biography to the CA Made website.

Applications will be accepted continuously. At the beginning of each quarter GO-Biz will review applications and execute licensing agreements with approved applicants.

For detailed information on the participation requirements and application review process, please review the final adopted CA Made regulations.

Any qualified group or individual may become a third-party certifier under the program. It is a third-party certifier's responsibility to ensure their compliance with the program's statute and regulations. GO-Biz does not approve, select, endorse, recommend, or provide oversight of third-party certifiers.

Third-party certifiers will develop a methodology for conducting certifications based on the types of products they plan to certify. Third-party certifiers may determine whether a product satisfies the program’s requirements by reviewing the following materials from the applicant to verify the origin of materials in California or the United States:

• Approved budgets
• Invoices and any other documents
• Computerized data
• Other writings (handwritten, typewritten, printed, copied, or electronically stored)

Third-party certifiers will determine whether the product(s) in an application meet the definitions of "Made in U.S.A." and "substantially made" in California as set forth in the program. Section 8120 (c) of the regulations provides an optional formula to determine if a product is "substantially made." After making these determinations, the third-party certifier will complete and sign the CA Made Third-Party Certification Form for the applicant. The applicant will submit the CA Made Third-Party Certification Form to GO-Biz electronically by uploading a scanned copy of the signed Third-Party Certification Form to his/her application on the CA Made website.

Third-party certifiers may charge applicants a fee based on the time and effort required to certify a product.