It is an international rule that specifies the requirements of the management quality system for all organizations, independently of their kind and dimensions and of the products they provide.
Therefore the certification according to the UNI-EN-ISO 9001:2000 rule is a system certification.
The issue of a certification in Italy is carried out by certification bodies which are, in turn, certified by SINCERT (National System for the Confirmation of Certification Bodies). SINCERT is an association constituted by UNI (Italian National Body of Unification) and CEI (Italian Electrotechnical Committee); private subjects and public administration offices are members of SINCERT, as the Ministry of the Productive Activities, the CNR (National Council of Research), the ENEA (Body for the New Technologies) and the Chambers of Commerce. UNI is the Italian member of CEN (Comité Europeen de Normalisation) and of ISO (International Organisation for Standardisation).
The certificate in compliance with the UNI-EN-ISO 9001:2000 rule is issued following the getting through of an inspection examination which is held in the firm by the qualified inspectors of the certification body. It has a triennial validity, but it must be confirmed at least once a year by an inspection examination carried out in the firm.
"I.F.S. (International Food Standard)
IFS is a food security standard created in 2002 by the German food retailers in partnership with HDE (Hauptverband des Deutschen Einzelhandels) which was joined in 2003 by the French food with FCD (Fédération des enerprises du Commerci et de la Distribution).
The food producers can be certified after the getting through of an examination audit about the respect of the security requirements fixed by IFS. If the producer gets through the audit, he receives the IFS certificate that shows the points and the level (base level or high level). The certification has got a six-monthly or annual term, depending on the criticality of the food production.
The inspection examination by audit and the issue of the certificate is carried out by certification bodies confirmed as reliable by IFS.
The purpose of IFS is to define an evaluation system for all the food producing firms with: standard requirements, standard audit procedures and a mutual acceptance of the audits, to point out a high level of clearness in the producer-retailer chain.
You can find further information about IFS in the site www.food-care.info, that also serves as portal of the firms certified according to IFS.
Orthodox Union