Having a certified food safety system can be a journey towards business improvement. It is also increasingly becoming a term of contract. But what is accredited certification and how does the certification process work?
What is accreditation?
Accreditation verifies the certification body/registrar’s competence. To fulfil the accreditation criteria, an accrediting authority assesses the certification body/registrar. This is to verify that the certification body/registrar complies with existing requirements. This is the authorities’ way of auditing the auditors (certification bodies/registrars like DNV).
What is third party accredited certification?
Accredited certification of processes/products is used to demonstrate compliance to a standard. Third party certification bodies/registrars are auditing organisations that provide auditing services to companies that wish to obtain certification to specific standards.
How do I become certified by DNV?
A successful food safety system is one that achieves the established food safety objectives and that is improved on a continual basis. Both your food safety system and certificate have to be maintained. Therefore, accredited certification consists of two stages: the primary certification and maintenance of the certificate thereafter.
Primary certification
- Documentation review
Our lead auditor evaluates your food safety system documents. The documentation review is usually conducted as part of the Certification Audit. - Certification audit
The certification audit consists of informal interviews, examinations, and observations of the system in operation. During this process, we assess your food safety system’s degree of compliance with the requirements of the elected standard and performance in relation to the established food safety, quality and legality objectives. When found compliant, we issue the certificate. Findings will be presented at the end of the audit in a closing meeting and included in the audit report.
Maintenance of certificate
At this stage you have completed the initial certification and can move on to maintenance of your certification. - Periodic audits/re-certification
Each issued certificate’s validity is usually limited to the “next audit” date, which could be 6-12-18 months depending from the specific standard and the results achieved in the previous audits. Upon certification, we will create a periodic audit schedule for regular audits over the three-year period, which is the usual service contract duration. These audits confirm your company’s on-going compliance with specified requirements of the standard.
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