Northstar, a Brooklyn Park, Minnesota-based member of the Ennis Inc. family of companies, has helped to create a new U.S. standard that defines minimum security requirements for the design, production and supply chain of United States birth certificates. Ennis, Inc. is the parent company of several industry suppliers, including Folder Express (PPAI 354129), Independent Folders (PPAI 111993) and Admore, Inc. (PPAI 111144).

This standard, "ANSI/NASPO BC 2019, Minimum Security Requirements for United States Birth Certification Documents," was developed by NASPO International and the American National Standards Institute along with a committee of industry experts and interested parties. Northstar, founded in 1962 with locations in Roseville and Brooklyn Park, specializes in secure documents and employs production and building procedures that have made it a NASPO-accredited printer. Tony Orsello, general manager of Northstar, Brooklyn Park, served as a committee member and provided recommendations to the standards of the organizations.

“The supply chain changes that have happened over the last few years created an opportunity to create a new, more secure birth certificate for use within the United States,” says Orsello. “Working with our paper supply partner and adding our expertise in secure document printing allowed us to create a product that is superior to what has been used for decades. I welcomed the opportunity to share my experience in the manufacture of vital records with the committee to help define and set these new, updated standards.”

The standard was created to protect against fraud and establishes the minimum security technologies that should be incorporated into birth certificates for authentication, as well as the minimum requirements for manufacture and distribution to vital records offices.

Vital-records documents created by Northstar meet and exceed the new standard requirements, and have already been provided by Northstar to state and local government agencies across the U.S.