Group certification

Your business may be able to benefit by getting MSC Chain of Custody certified as part of a group.

Who can get certified as a group?

Group certification is recommended for companies that can work together to become MSC Chain of Custody certified.

A group is made of a group entity (central services) and its associated individual sites. Examples of groups include:
•    Industrial corporations with several production sites
•    Groups of individual businesses, such as independent restaurants or fish mongers, that form an association to become certified together
•    Retail operating over multiple sites
•    Foodservice companies with individual catering sites

What are the benefits of group certification?

Getting certified as a group:
•    May reduce the cost as not every site in a group is audited by the certifier
•    Can be less work for you than certifying each single site individually

How can we get certified as a group?

For group certification the certifier checks how the group ensures that each site complies with the MSC Chain of Custody standard. This is different from single site certification, where the certifier checks that each individual site complies with the MSC Chain of Custody standard.

What the group does to get certified:
•    Appoints an MSC representative who is responsible for running the certification of the group
•    Implements the Chain of Custody standard (and Annex BD) in all sites
•    Defines and implements a system to control how the sites meet the Chain of Custody standard (e.g. who controls MSC certified fish, who trains staff…). That system has to comply with the ‘Requirements for Group Certification’
•    Regularly checks that each site complies with the MSC Chain of Custody standard

How a certifier audits groups: 
To get certified, a certifier will verify how the group meets the requirements for group certification by auditing:
•    The group entity (central services), and
•    A number of sites randomly chosen

If successful, the certificate is issued under the name of the group. It is valid for all sites, even if the certifier hasn’t visited them.

Download documents for group certification 

Requirements for group certification
Details the procedures and controls a group has to implement for group certification.

Download ‘Requirements for group certification’ (PDF, 146kb). Annex BC