International Organization for Standardization (ISO), an independent organization offers quality, efficiency and reliability of products and services for businesses worldwide. Awareness has significantly increased in recent times hence improving safety of the product and service is prime objective of most businesses. Elevating the quality of the products and services that contribute to safety is a necessity to achieve. Businesses expanding internationally need to preserve their integrity to procure the assurance of the customers. The global competition among businesses is at a high peak, so it is important to deliver prosperously in order to sustain in the market. ISO certification helps to refine credibility as well as overall consistency of the business.
There are many well-known companies providing ISO certifications solutions. One such ISO certification company with a renowned experience of over a decade is INDOCERT, India’s first indigenous certification body established in the year 2001 as a membership organization by NGO’s and farmer producer associations. It is based in Aluva, Kerala and works as a non-profit organization. Its mission is to render reliable and affordable Certification and Training Services in the field of production, processing and trade for the realization of safe and sustainable agriculture and food products. INDOCERT functions nationally in nineteen states and has enlarged their imprint internationally to SriLanka, Nepal, Egypt, Laos and Cambodia.
INDOCERT holds international accreditation from DAKKS, Germany according to EN 45011/ ISO 17065, for certification of agricultural production, collection of wild plants, and processing of organic agricultural products . It is included in the Swiss list of control bodies that can provide equivalent guaranties for products produced in accordance with the organic production rules of the Swiss ordinance of organic farming.
An Adroit Leader
A talented and diligent personality, Mathew Sebastian is the Co-Founder and Founding Executive Director of INDOCERT. He is responsible for the regular management, administration of INDOCERT and the implementation of the policies as defined by the general body and board of trustees. He supervises the implementation of the policies and the procedures of INDOCERT certification schemes in compliance to the requirements of various certification standards.
Esteemed for Sheer Work
INDOCERT is accredited by National Accreditation Board for Certification Bodies as per ISO 17021 & ISO 22003 for providing food safety management system certification based on ISO 22000:2005. It is approved by High field Awarding Body for Compliance and Royal Society for Public Health, UK to offer food safety training programs from foundation level to level 4. National Accreditation Body government of India has accredited INDOCERT as per National Program for Organic Production. It also provides organic certification as per USDA-NOP standards for products destined for export to the United States.
It offers organic certification for agricultural production; food processing and trade, feed processing, wild collection and Rainforest Alliance certification. It provides verification services better cotton initiative; certification for UTZ certified code of conduct and chain of custody requirements for tea, coffee and cocoa.
An On-going Movement
In recent times quality and safety of food products have become central aspects having an influence on national and international businesses. Awareness on food has considerably increased with times. People have become more cautious and are keen to know about their food consumption. Consumers confirm this by checking the label of the product, whether the product holds any food safety certification. And there comes the importance of ISO certification for a production unit.
The food production industry is willing to take the ISO certification. As in future the demand will increase since the consumers prefer safe and healthy food. The ISO Certification is responsible as a certification body to ensure the quality of the product it certifies.
Arising to Overcome Obstacles
INDOCERT considers their challenges as opportunities and works for it. The opportunities are high as the company deals with multiple certification services. It is having a team of experienced and motivated agricultural and food processing professionals engaged in inspection and certification. The company focuses on transforming it as a platform for training, awareness, information and networking in the field of safe and sustainable food production.
Scenario of the New Venture
The company is currently working on the ISO Certification of the diary processing units in Wayanad, Kerala. Six dairy units are included in this project and hopefully by the end of August all the units will be under ISO 22000 Food Safety Management System Certification. Among the six units, four units are chilling units, which does the chilling and storing of milk. The other two units are processing units in which the milk is processed into homogenized and toned milk and products like curd, ghee, buttermilk and more.
Expanding with Time
From this year the company has decided to involve more on ISO certification starting with the dairy units in Wayanad and further progression into southern and northern part of India.
A bunch of young enthusiastic and qualified certification officers are the major strength of INDOCERT. It has a separate team formed for ISO certification as the company has more than 500 clients under various certification services .The next step is to follow up on the clients for taking up ISO certification.
INDOCERT: An ISO Entity Providing a Stellar Performance in the Global Market
