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Certifications & ComplianceWe don't display certificate badges on this page. Every document below is sent as a scan with your quotation, and this page tells you what each one actually covers and how to check it independently. That is more useful to you than a graphic.
This applies to us as much as to anyone else. If a supplier can't survive these four checks, the certificate isn't worth the paper it's on.
A PDF can be edited in a minute. A certificate number can be looked up in the issuing body's own registry. Ask for the number, then go and search it yourself.
Accredited certifiers publish verification portals. If you can't find a portal, contact the certifier directly using the contact details on their website — not the ones printed on the certificate.
Two things must line up: the site (the certified address must be the factory that actually makes your goods) and the product category (a certificate covering one product class doesn't cover another).
Confirm it hasn't expired and that the certificate holder's legal name matches the entity on your contract and invoice. A group affiliate's certificate does not automatically cover the entity you're paying.
If a supplier is reluctant to give you a certificate number, that reluctance is the answer to your question.
The baseline. Without these, a facility isn't legally producing or exporting at all. They're the first thing to verify and the easiest to overlook because they're assumed.
SC licence (食品生产许可证), China
The mandatory licence for any food manufacturer operating in China, administered under the market regulation authority. The licence lists the specific product categories the site is permitted to produce — anything outside that list is not legal production, regardless of who the customer is.
出口食品生产企业备案, administered under the customs authority
Chinese food producers must be registered before they may export. Note that this regime has been revised more than once in recent years and the scheme's exact name and scope have changed with it — so verify what is currently in force rather than accepting an old wording.
营业执照 — the entity behind the certificate
The certificate holder and the entity you contract with should be the same legal person, or the relationship between them must be documented. This is where trading companies and factories most often get conflated.
These certify a system rather than a product. Three of them — FSSC 22000, BRCGS and IFS — are benchmarked by GFSI, which is the recognition that matters to most European and multinational retailers.
Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points
A preventive methodology: identify the points in a process where food safety could fail, then control those points and record it. HACCP is the foundation layer — most other schemes below incorporate it rather than replace it.
Food safety management system
The international standard for a food safety management system, combining HACCP principles with management-system requirements around policy, documentation and continual improvement. Widely recognised but not GFSI-benchmarked.
Food Safety System Certification — GFSI recognised
Built on ISO 22000 with additional prerequisite-programme and sector requirements. One of the schemes most commonly named in European retailer and brand-owner supplier approval processes.
Brand / British Retail Consortium Global Standards — GFSI recognised
Originated with UK retail and remains the scheme most often specified for UK and Irish grocery supply. Grades the outcome, so the grade matters as much as the certificate — ask for the grade, not just the certificate.
International Featured Standards — GFSI recognised
Originated with German and French retail. Functionally comparable in purpose to the other GFSI schemes; which one a supplier holds is often simply a function of which certification body they work with.
These aren't quality documents — they're permission slips for a specific destination market. They matter enormously for some countries and not at all for others.
Compliance with Islamic dietary requirements
For Indonesia and Malaysia this is frequently a market-access requirement rather than a nice-to-have, and Indonesia's regime in particular has moved toward mandatory certification for a widening range of product categories. Recognised bodies differ by country — a Malaysian certificate and an Indonesian certificate are not interchangeable.
Food facility registration, plus FSMA preventive controls where applicable
Facilities that manufacture, process, pack or hold food for consumption in the US must register with the FDA, and registration must be renewed periodically. Registration is not an approval or an endorsement — it's a filing requirement, which is precisely why it's often misrepresented as more than it is.
Import conditions for products of animal origin
Pet food containing material of animal origin entering the EU is subject to specific import conditions, and the establishment must appear on the relevant EU list. This is a different question from "do you hold ISO 22000" — a supplier can hold excellent certifications and still not be listed for EU entry.
Indicative only. Requirements change, and they depend on your product category and your own importer's obligations — not just on the country.
| European Union | Food safety system (ISO 22000 or a GFSI scheme) · establishment listing for products of animal origin · full traceability documentation |
|---|---|
| United Kingdom | GFSI-recognised scheme commonly specified, BRCGS most often named by retail · importer-held requirements |
| United States | FDA facility registration · FSMA preventive controls where applicable · prior notice for each shipment |
| Indonesia | Halal certification through a recognised body · import licensing held by your importer |
| Malaysia | Halal certification recognised by the Malaysian authority · importer-held requirements |
| Australia / New Zealand | Importer-held biosecurity and food import requirements · documentation set defined by the importer's permit conditions |
| Thailand / Philippines / Vietnam | Varies by category and by importer. Often product-level test reports and a food safety system certificate are the practical baseline. |
⚠️ This table is a starting point for the conversation, not regulatory advice. Your importer of record carries the legal obligation in the destination market, and their requirements override anything written here. Tell us your market and we'll tell you specifically what we can and cannot provide.
Certificates describe your factory. Test reports describe the actual goods in the actual container — which is what your importer and your customer care about.
Indicator organisms and pathogens on the finished product, per batch or per agreed frequency, to the parameters your market specifies.
Testing against the limits that apply in your destination market — limits differ between jurisdictions, so "passes testing" is meaningless without saying where.
The analytical basis for the nutrition panel you print. Not something to copy from a competitor's pack — the numbers must describe your actual formula.
A per-batch COA tying the batch code to its results, so a report can be traced back to the specific goods that arrived at your warehouse.
Documentation is the easiest place in this trade to lie, because the buyer usually can't check. These are our rules about that.
If a certificate covers one product category and you're buying another, we say so. Presenting an adjacent certificate as if it covers your product is the single most common misrepresentation in this industry.
Certificates lapse while supplier relationships carry on, because nobody re-checks. If ours is out of date or in renewal, you'll hear it from us before you find it yourself.
And we'll tell you what your realistic options are — a different scheme, a different route, or a different supplier. If a missing certificate makes us the wrong partner for your market, you should hear that early rather than in month four.
Before you ask us to quote against a long list of certificates, tell us your destination market and channel. Half the list may be irrelevant, and the half that matters is usually narrower than buyers expect.
We reply within 24 hours on business days — usually with the relevant document set, and an honest answer about anything we can't provide.