The assurance of food safety and quality is of major importance to retailers and their customers. This assurance can be demonstrated by the utilization of responsible and professional certification, inspection and testing services which are provided to audit and certify the food production and manufacturing systems implemented by suppliers.

Retailers today source produce and other foods from a range of suppliers located around the globe. They must have confidence in the certification, inspection and testing of these suppliers which are increasingly being carried out on their behalf by independent certification bodies and testing laboratories.

These certification bodies and laboratories must also demonstrate their competence and this is achieved through accreditation (independent audit against accepted criteria set by the International Standardization Organization (ISO) provided by a nationally recognized accreditation body.

Accreditation of a certification body delivers confidence in the certificates and reports they issue. The international standard that a certification body must meet to be eligible to provide audit and certification services to the SQF Program is the ISO/IAF Guide 65 document and additional requirements detailed by the SQF Institute in the document SQFI Guidance On the Application of ISO/IEC Guide 65:1996, General Requirements for Certification Bodies Offering Certification of SQF Systems 4th Edition - April 2004. These documents address issues such as impartiality, competence and reliability of the audit and certification service provided and leads to confidence in the comparability of certificates and reports across national borders. Governments also have confidence in these testing and certification reports which support various regulatory requirements.