Third-party certification provides information to a stakeholder that allows them to determine compliance to regulatory and purchase specifications, to apply risk management principles and to determine general suitability of products, systems and processes.
NSF accredited third-party certification provides all stakeholders – industry, regulators, users and the general public – assurance that a certified product, material, component or service complies with the technical requirements of the referenced standard.
The NSF certification process is specific to the product, process or service being certified and the type of certification, but generally follows seven steps:
- Application and information submission
- evaluation
- Product testing in lab
- Manufacturing facility inspection, production confirmation and product sampling
- Test results review and acceptance
- Contract signed and products listed
- Annual plant inspection and retesting