SAUDI FOOD AND DRUG AUTHORITY

The SFDA licence.

The Saudi Food and Drug Authority licenses QSI CERT CO as a conformity assessment establishment. This page states what the licence covers, what SFDA requires of a designated body, and what the licence does not mean for a certified organisation.

THE LICENCE

What the licence covers.

SFDA is a regulator, not an accreditation body. Its designation licence permits a named legal entity to carry out conformity assessment work in the Kingdom, within a stated area, for a stated period. It is issued to the body, and it is the body that is supervised against it.

LICENCE NUMBERCB-2024-FO-0011

LICENCE TYPEConformity Assessment Establishment

LICENSED SCOPEQuality Systems for Establishments

DELIVERED AGAINSTISO 22000:2018 · HACCP

LEGAL ENTITYQSI CERT CO

COMMERCIAL REGISTRATIONCR 7036470453

ISSUED13 / 10 / 2024

VALID TO12 / 10 / 2027

The licence certificate is published in full on the accreditations register, alongside every accreditation certificate QSI holds and the scopes each one covers.

SUPERVISION

SFDA supervision of designated bodies.

Accreditation comes first. The regulator sits on the impartiality committee. The body is assessed every year, and a suspended accreditation suspends the designated work with it.

FIG. 02 · THE SUPERVISION CHAIN · ACCREDITATION, DESIGNATION, CERTIFICATION

WHAT SFDA REQUIRES

Requirements for a designated body.

These are conditions SFDA places on every designated conformity assessment body, taken from its published designation guidance. They are worth reading before choosing any body, not only this one.

ACCREDITATION FIRSTA body cannot hold an SFDA designation without accreditation for the designated area. For a Saudi body that accreditation must come from the Saudi Accreditation Center. The licence rests on the accreditation, not beside it.

SFDA SITS ON THE COMMITTEESAn SFDA representative is a permanent member of the designated body’s impartiality committee, and of its complaints, appeals and disputes committees. The regulator is inside the room where impartiality is judged.

NO CONSULTANCY TO CLIENTSA designated body may not provide qualification services, consultancy or internal audits to its own customers. The separation is a licence condition, not a policy choice.

ASSESSED EVERY YEARPerformance is subject to annual periodic assessment by SFDA, including inspection visits, review of the maintained scope of accreditation, and further visits where a complaint or appeal is raised against technical competence.

SUSPENSION TRAVELSIf accreditation is suspended, SFDA must be notified immediately, and certification stops where the activity is suspended by SFDA or by the accreditation body. A licence cannot outlive the accreditation underneath it.

RECORDS FOR FIVE YEARSPapers and documents relating to a certificate are retained for five years after the designation certificate expires, and nonconformity records are kept and produced to SFDA on request.

LIABILITY IS NAMEDThe designated body bears full legal liability for reports it issues that are proven incorrect, together with the consequent damage, expenses and penalties.

CONNECTED TO SFDA SYSTEMSDesignated bodies are required to link electronically with SFDA’s systems, and to tell SFDA if that system changes or stops working.

Source: SFDA, Guidance on the Requirements of Designation of Conformity Assessment Bodies. Where a specific case turns on the exact wording, the Authority’s current published issue governs.

LIMITS OF THE LICENCE

What the licence does not cover.

These are the three points most often misstated on labels and in tender documents.

NOT AN APPROVAL OF YOUR PRODUCTSFDA licenses QSI to carry out conformity assessment. It does not approve the products, batches or recipes of QSI’s clients. No certificate from any body makes a product SFDA approved.

NOT A LICENCE YOU CAN DISPLAYCB-2024-FO-0011 is QSI’s permission to operate. It does not pass to a certified organisation, and the SFDA logo must not be shown on the strength of a QSI certificate.

NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR YOUR OWN REGISTRATIONWhere your product or establishment needs its own SFDA registration or licence, that remains a matter between you and the Authority. Certification does not replace it.

THE MARK RULES

What may and may not be displayed, for every mark on a QSI certificate, is set out in the published use of mark and logo rules.

THE FOOD ROUTE

The work delivered under this licence runs against ISO 22000 and HACCP, with the accredited sectors stated on the register.