5 Types of Food Certifications

April 16, 2018

AGMARK

AGMARK is a certification mark for agricultural produce, assuring that they conform to a grade standard notified by Directorate of Marketing & Inspection (DMI), Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare under Agricultural Produce (Grading Marking) Act, 1937. While the certification scheme is essentially voluntary, Food Safety and Standards (Prohibition and Restriction on Sales) Regulations 2011 have prescribed mandatory certification under AGMARK for certain products viz. Blended Edible Vegetable Oil, Fat Spread.

Fssai

BIS

The Bureau of Indian Standards(BIS) operates product certification schemes by which it grants licenses to manufacturers covering practically every industrial discipline from agriculture and textiles to electronics. While the scheme itself is voluntary in nature, the Indian Government has, in public interest, enforced mandatory certification on various products through various quality control orders issued from time to time, under various acts. In this connection, the FSS (Prohibition and Restriction on Sales) Regulations, 2011 has prescribed mandatory certification under the BIS Act for the following products:

  • Follow up the formula- complementary foods(IS 15757)
  • Processed cereal-based complementary foods (IS11536)
  • Milk Powder(IS 1165)
  • Condensed Milk, Partly Skimmed and Skimmed Condensed Milk(IS 1166)
  • Sweetened UHT treated condensed milk (IS 12176)
  • Skimmed Milk Powder(IS 13334)
  • Packaged natural mineral water(IS 13428)
  • Infant milk substitutes (IS 14433)
  • Partly Skimmed Milk Powder(IS 14542)
  • Packaged Drinking Water (Other than Packaged Natural Mineral Water) (IS 14543)
  • Milk cereal-based weaning food (IS 1656)

HACCP

India HACCP – Standard describes the requirements against which certification as per India HACCP can be obtained under the Voluntary Certification Scheme for Food Safety operated by Quality Council of India (QCI). The objective is to define the requirements for hazard analysis and critical control points (HACCP) based system that any food business needs to implement for the production of safe and suitable food.

GHP

India GHP– Standard describes the requirements against which certification as per India GHP can be obtained under the India GHP Certification Scheme for Food Safety operated by Quality Council of India (QCI). The objective is to define Good Hygienic Practice (GHP) requirements that any food business needs to implement for the production of safe and suitable food.

ISO

ISO Certification is a seal of approval from a third party body that a company runs to one of the internationally recognized ISO management systems.  It is a voluntary certification. ISO 22000, 9001, 140001 are few of the common certifications applicable to food industries.

Halal Certification

Halal Certification is provided by Halal Certification Bodies in India. While providing Halal certification, a competent authority audits and ensures that the business neither is nor consist of or contains any part or matter of an animal that a Muslim is prohibited by Shariah to consume or that has not been slaughtered in accordance with Shariah and does not contain anything which is considered to be impure according to Shariah.

Kosher Certification

It is voluntary certification. For a product to be kosher certified, and to qualify for a kosher certificate, each ingredient, food additive and processing aid used in its production must also be kosher.

Post Views: 22,877