FSSC 22000
GFSI-recognised food safety system certification. A common supplier condition for European and international retail chains.
COMPLIANCE
What decides market entry
is usually the certificate
Halal opens Malaysia and the Middle East. OU kosher opens the United States. FSSC 22000 opens European retail. A good formula without the certificate the destination requires is a product that cannot be listed.
Wherever you want to sell, that market asks for a certificate. Halal opens Malaysia and the Middle East, OU kosher opens the United States, FSSC 22000 opens European retail. The certificate is issued to a production line, so our job is to have your product made on a line that holds it, or to take a line there.
1 HOW IT WORKS FOR YOU
How this runs, from where you are standing
The first two steps need information from you. The last three sit between us and the production line: documentation, plant work and handling the audit are not yours to manage, only to be kept informed about.
- 01You say where it sellsTarget market and product category. Those two decide which certificate applies: halal, kosher, a GFSI-recognised scheme or organic.
- 02We check whether an existing line covers itWhether your item sits inside a certificate we can already use. If it does, no consulting is needed.
- 03If not, we take a line thereDocumentation, plant conditions and audit preparation are handled between us and the plant. This part needs none of your people.
- 04The certificate issuesThe audit passes and the certificate issues with your item inside its scope. We confirm that before calling the step done.
- 05You get a product that can shipThe product, the specification, the test reports and the export documents, ready to hand over when a channel or a buyer asks.
2 WHICH CERTIFICATE FOR WHICH MARKET
Which certificate opens which market
Halal
Required for Malaysia, Indonesia and the Middle East. Demands full evidence on ingredient origin, line segregation and cleaning procedure.
OU kosher
The most widely recognised kosher certification in North America and a common US retail requirement.
Organic certification
Needed on both the ingredient and processing side, with full separation from non-organic inputs.
Traceability (TAP)
Farm-to-product traceability, a trust signal for Taiwan retail and group-buying channels.
CAS quality mark
A Taiwan national mark. It works on the domestic channel rather than for export.
3 CERTIFICATE TO MARKET
Which certificate opens which market
4 WHAT AN AUDIT ACTUALLY LOOKS AT
What a certification audit actually examines
It audits the system, not the batch
Many people assume certification means sending product for testing and receiving a pass report. Food safety system certification does not work that way. The auditor examines the system across the line: how hazard analysis was done, how control points are monitored, what happens on deviation, where records live, who verifies them.
A flawless test report on one batch is therefore not evidence of conformity. Conversely, a well-run line that had a deviation usually does not pick up a major finding, provided it was recorded, corrected and followed up.
So the consulting work is not preparing for one audit. It is making the system something the plant can run daily and evidence afterwards.
The scope field matters more than the certificate
Every certificate carries a field stating the product categories and lines it covers. A buyer audit and a customs inspection read that field, not the title.
The common gap is a plant that holds the certification while your item sits in an uncovered category. That will not surface during quoting. It surfaces when the buyer requests the file or when the goods are inspected at port.
So the question we settle when configuring a line is whether your item is inside the scope, not whether the plant has a certificate. If it is not, the options are extending the scope or changing the configuration.
5 THE ADVISORY SCOPE
The scope of the advisory service
5STEPSAssessment, documentation, remediation, audit support, upkeep
8CASESCertificates held by partner plants; Veg Allies was the advisor
3INTERNATIONALFSSC 22000, halal, OU kosher
0PRE-ASSESSMENT QUOTESTimeline and cost depend on the gap, discussed after assessment
5 COMMON QUESTIONS
Common questions
Whose certificates are these?
The certificates are held by partner factories. They are our certification consulting cases. Veg Allies acts as the advisor: building documentation, remedying the plant and supporting the audit through to issue.
We are a brand, not a plant. Do we need certification?
Channels and customs generally require certification on the production side, so the answer is to run on a line that already holds it, or to take a line there. The brand may separately face trademark, labeling and importer-of-record requirements.
How long does it take and what does it cost?
It depends on the gap between the plant as-is and the target standard, which is what the assessment establishes. We do not quote a timeline or a price before that.
Is halal certification just about pork?
No. Halal covers ingredient origin, alcohol content, line and equipment segregation, cleaning procedure and full documentary traceability. A vegetarian product can still fail on ingredient origin or shared lines.
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