Reading a food certificate file: the questions that sort it out

Most supplier files for food products arrive with more than one certificate in them. The receiving side usually has one person and one afternoon. This is a short method for that afternoon.

Start with the question, not the document

Every certificate in the file answers a question somebody once asked. Before reading any of them, write down the question you are asking. Common ones:

• Is this product permissible for a customer who keeps kosher?
• Does this plant manage food safety hazards under a system somebody competent has audited?
• Is this particular product line, from this particular site, covered?

Then match documents to questions. A kosher certificate answers the first. An ISO 22000 certificate answers the second. The third is answered by the scope statements on both, and by nothing else.

The four fields to read on an ISO 22000 certificate

The certification body and its accreditation. The body's name, the accreditation body, and an accreditation number. On a CAS certificate that is EGAC and CAB #012418.

The standard and edition. ISO 22000:2018. An older edition on a current certificate is a question in itself.

The scope. Product categories, processes and sites. Read it against the product you are buying.

The fields to read on a kosher certificate

The certifying agency's name and mark. The products or lines covered, and their status — pareve, dairy, meat. The validity period, which is commonly one year. Any conditions of supervision.

Then confirm it with the agency. Most agencies publish a list; some answer enquiries directly. There is no register that spans agencies.

When the two disagree

They cannot disagree, because they do not overlap. What can happen is that one is current and the other is not, or one covers the product and the other does not. That is not a contradiction; it is two separate answers, one of which is "no".

Where CAS stands

CAS issues ISO 22000 certificates under EGAC accreditation — those are verified at cas.com.eg/certsearch and in EGAC's register. CAS offers kosher certification through its partner KCJ, under the partner's religious authority; those certificates are labelled as non-accredited and carry no accreditation mark. Two different questions, and we keep them in two different columns of our own catalogue for that reason.

CAS — An EGAC accredited MS certification body No. 012418. Accredited scope: ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001, ISO 22000, ISO 50001 and ISO 22301. Certificates accredited for ISO 9001, 14001, 45001, 22000 and 50001 fall within EGAC's IAF MLA scope; ISO 22301 is accredited by EGAC and sits outside that scope.