FSSAI in recent gazette notification No. 328 and published on 07th Sep 2018 has declared that it may for the purpose of carrying food safety audit, grant recognition to auditing agencies that holds a valid accreditation on ISO/IEC 17020 or ISO/IEC 17021 or ISO/TS 22003 from National Accreditation Board for Certification Bodies (NABCB) for Management System Certification, for the required food categories specified by the Food Authority.
It further mentioned that the Food Authority may consider auditing agency which is accredited by any other accreditation body and is a member of the International Accreditation Forum and signatory to the International Accreditation Forum Multilateral Recognition Arrangements for Management System Certification subject to the condition that they shall apply for National Accreditation Board for Certification Bodies accreditation.
“I am glad FSSAI has decided to use NABCB accreditation since our accreditation schemes are internationally equivalent and facilitate acceptance of products inspected or certified in the world market,” said Mr. Anil Jauhri, CEO, National Accreditation Board for Certification Bodies (NABCB) on this development.
About NABCB:
National Accreditation Board for Certification Bodies (NABCB), a constituent Board of the Quality Council of India (QCI), is the national accreditation body, which provides accreditation to Certification as well as Inspection Bodies in accordance with ISO Standards, international requirements/guidelines and NABCB Accreditation Criteria. NABCB is internationally recognized and represents the interests of the Indian industry at the international forums under the aegis of the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) and the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) and its recognized regional bodies in the Asia Pacific region, the Pacific Accreditation Cooperation (PAC) and the Asia Pacific Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (APLAC) for certification and inspection bodies respectively with the sole objective of promoting acceptance of India’s certifications and inspections internationally by becoming a signatory to the Multilateral/Mutual Recognition Arrangements (MLAs/MRAs) of these bodies after undergoing successful international peer evaluations.
NABCB Accreditation Programmes enable services and products to meet agreed standards by providing confidence to consumers, government and purchasers and facilitate international acceptance of the conformity assessment results and in turn the products and services.