Subway brings back honey oat bread and creamy sriracha sauce
The National Accreditation Board for Certification Bodies (NABCB), the national accreditation body for accreditation of certification and inspection bodies, and a constituent board of the Quality Council of India (QCI), the apex body on accreditation and quality promotion in India, has signed the Multilateral Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MLAs) of the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) for its accreditation programmes on Food Safety Management Systems (FSMS) certification as per international standards ISO 17021 and ISO 22003, as well as on Information Security Management Systems (ISMS) certification as per the international standard ISO/IEC 27001, on 05 November 2015 at Milan, Italy in the presence of other IAF MLA Signatories. Mr. Anil Jauhri, CEO, NABCB received the IAF MLA certificate from Mr. Randy Dougherty, Chair of IAF in the ceremony.
This confers worldwide equivalence to NABCB’s accreditation programmes in these two areas. NABCB is one of the 3 Accreditation Bodies in ISMS and one of 11 Accreditation Bodies in FSMS worldwide to sign the IAF MLAs.
This means that any industry or organization, certified to international standards, ISO 22000 for FSMS and ISO 27001 for ISMS, by a certification body accredited by NABCB in India, can claim international equivalence. This would facilitate acceptance of Indian goods and services in the world market.
Incidentally no accreditation body from Europe or North/South America has yet secured this distinction. IAF is the global association of Accreditation Bodies and other bodies interested in conformity assessment in the fields of management systems, products, services, personnel and other similar programmes of conformity assessment. Its primary function is to develop a single worldwide programme of conformity assessment which reduces risk for business and its customers by assuring them that accredited certificates may be relied upon. Accreditation assures users of the competence and impartiality of the body accredited.
NABCB has already secured international equivalences for its accreditation programmes for ISO 9001 certification bodies in 2002, ISO 14001 certification bodies in 2007, Product certification bodies based on ISO 17065 in 2013, Inspection Bodies based on ISO 17020 also in 2013 and GlobalGAP certification bodies in 2014.
Accreditation has become an essential tool for getting international acceptance of certification, inspection and testing done in India and it is referenced in many bilateral Free Trade Agreements like the India – Singapore Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement in which NABCB accreditation is a requirement for certification of electrical/electronic and telecom products. Thus, accreditation eliminates technical barriers to trade and facilitates export of Indian products in world market.
NABCB has currently accredited 14 Certification Bodies and has 7 applicants for FSMS and has currently accredited 3 Certification Bodies and has 1 applicant for ISMS. Entities certified for FSMS and ISMS by NABCB accredited certification bodies will gain international recognition and acceptance.