5 replies to this topic

[jonboy47]

Hi everyone. Thanks for the great forum and good discussions. I have a question I'm hoping someone may have some input on for me. I'm wondering what sort of certification standards may be a good choice for our company. We serve the food production industry, as a certification body for BRC and SQF, as well as laboratory services, commodity inspection, and provide facility inspections for our members. I should also note that we are non-profit.

We currently are developing our 17025 system in our labs and have some tests certified already, and we have the appropriate oversight for our BRC and SQF programs as well. Now we're discussing the appropriate certification for our commodity inspection programs, or perhaps the company as a whole. I have a good amount of industry experience with ISO 9001 from the manufacturing side, but not from the service side. The 9001 standard does seem like an obvious choice, but I'm wondering if anyone has other suggestions. Thanks in advance for your input!

[Simon]

Can anyone help Jon with this one?

Thanks in advance.
Simon

[Charles.C]

Dear jonboy,

Apologies but I found yr post somewhat confusing. Maybe the intended scope was slightly unclear.

I deduce the primary query is –

Now we're discussing the appropriate certification for our commodity inspection programs (CIPR), or perhaps the company as a whole.

And

The 9001 standard does seem like an obvious choice, but I'm wondering if anyone has other suggestions.

I presume you are accredited as a certification board for BRC, SQF.
This presumably covers the safety-oriented aspects of a FSMS system for most CIPRs ?

I’m not too sure how much significance the “company as a whole” factor makes ?

If you are seeking a generic solution to non-safety, non-environmental aspects, ISO9001 does seem a logical choice (in fact I’m sort of surprised that you wouldn’t have transitioned through iso9001 already).

Or perhaps you intend to specialise on certain areas / commodities like some inspection bodies seem to do, eg GAP, post-GAP ?

So I guess it rather depends on what (quality?) criteria / objectives you are seeking within the context of “appropriate certification”.?

Sorry if I hv misunderstood yr post, not an auditor per se.

Rgds / Charles.C

[jonboy47]

Charles:

Thank you for the response, I think you've understood my question. I'm just wondering if there any other schemes, besides 9001, that would make sense for a company-wide certification. I know 9001 well, but I'm just not sure if there is another standard that might apply more specifically to inspection of food products (as 17025 doesn't seem to fit well), or some other standard that might be more focused on service provision (since 9001 is so general in scope).

I expect 9001 will be in our future but I just want to do my homework. :-)

Jon

[Nali Deepak]

Can anyone help Jon with this one?

Thanks in advance.
Simon

yes

[Charles.C]

yes

Dear Nali Deepak,

Please elaborate a little further.

Rgds / Charles.C