What to send a European buyer who asks about food safety certification

A request for food safety certification is answered by three things the buyer can check, and by one question sent back: which requirement is this for?

1. The certificate, complete and current

Send the whole certificate, in its latest issue. ISO/IEC 17021-1 §8.2.2 requires it to identify, among other things, the standard and its issue status, the expiry or recertification due date, and the certification body. Where a certificate has been revised, §8.2.2 i) requires a means to distinguish the revised document from obsolete ones, so the buyer can tell an older copy from the current one.

2. The scope line and the category

Under ISO 22003-1:2022 §9.1.2.2, the scope gives, for each site, a food chain category or subcategory from Table A.1 and a brief description of the main activities or processes audited.

Read it against the buyer's order before sending: the product, and the site it ships from. If either is outside the scope, the covering note is the place to say so.

3. The accreditation, and how to verify it

Name the accreditation body and the number. For a CAS certificate that is EGAC and No. 012418. Accredited ISO 22000 certificates from CAS fall within EGAC's IAF MLA scope.

The buyer can check the certificate at cas.com.eg/certsearch, and can check in EGAC's register that CAS's accreditation covers ISO 22000. Under ISO/IEC 17021-1 §8.1.2 b), a certification body provides the status of a given certification on request, so the buyer can also ask CAS directly.

Which standard or scheme, and which edition? If the specification names ISO 22000:2018, the certificate answers that line, within its scope. If it names a scheme with criteria additional to, or other than, those in ISO 22000, it does not. CAS's accreditation covers ISO 22000 and does not extend to such schemes.

Does the certificate have to be accredited? If so, ask whether the buyer accepts only certain accreditation bodies or recognition arrangements.

Which products, and which sites? The scope covers what was audited.

Is the request about the system, or about the food? FSMS certification does not attest to the safety or fitness of products (ISO 22003-1, clause 1). Some requests come from EU food law instead. An EU importer is a food business operator and has to be able to identify any person who supplied it with a food (Regulation (EC) No 178/2002, Articles 3 and 18). Operators give the competent authority evidence of the procedures Article 5 of Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 requires. The certificate does not answer requests of that kind.

When the answers come back

A request about the management system is answered by the certificate, its scope and the register. A request about another scheme goes to that scheme. A request about the food goes to what EU food law requires of the food business operator.

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.

Verify any certificate: cas.com.eg/certsearch