Which 3rd party certification to go for?

Hi all, 

I am having difficult deciding which 3rd party cert to move forward with for our facility. 

Some background: we manufacture oil in water emulsions and nanodispersions that are used in cosmetics, animal supplements, and dietary supplements. Everything we manufacture is liquid, packaged in bulk, and then sent on to be packaged for the consumer or further processed. Most of our products are considered acidified (21 CFR Part 114) due to the addition of an acid (usually citric) to bring the pH into range for microbial stability, we cold fill/hold. Our state ag department audits us annually under 110 and 114 because our materials while used in dietary supplements are not finished supplements and fall under the 110 food regulations. 

SO...SQF? NSF? FSSC? My goal/end-game is to simply have the backing of a trusted GFSI-type scheme to validate that our product safety program is up to par. 

I'd love to hear the community's feedback, thanks! 

What are your customers requesting? I'm assuming you're U.S. - do you export? FSSC if so, SQF if not. NSF is not GFSI certified, and I'm not familiar with what they are actually "certifying", but may be easier than a GFSI scheme if your customers don't request GFSI.

We do export to a few countries. We have not had any specific requests from customers, we are just trying to get ahead of the curve before they do. 

The companies that we import products from in the EU are universally BRC.  Some of our Association companies that Export are BRC for this reason as well.  We are SQF because our US customers prefer SQF, and we do not export.  I have heard that BRC is easier to implement than SQF, but I cannot tell you for sure.  NSF is a certifying body for GFSI.

Hi,

You can look at this similar thread.

Have a look to the upcoming webinar https://www.ifsqn.co...ar-schedule.php

titled 

Taking place: 21 Dec 2018 - 03:00 PM - 04:00 PM 

Rgds

moskito