Mandatory certification

Under Section 4 of a decree No. 220/98 Coll. of the Ministry of Agriculture, certificates issued by an authorised person (AO 203) are a source for the declaration of conformity in some determined products. Altogether 768 certificates were issued in 1999 for food for special dietary use, genuine spirits and cheeses from non-pasteurised milk.

Under Section 6 of a decree No. 220/98 Coll. of the Ministry of Agriculture, 442 certificates were issued (as a source for the declaration of conformity) for fruit and potatoes in the total quantity of 5,163,052 KG.

Voluntary certification

It is required mainly for purposes of exports of food and raw materials - CAFIA certificates prove certain characteristics or limits, mostly on the basis of requirements of foreign partner.

Altogether 61 certificates were issued in 1999, e.g. for malt for Brazil, biscuits for Saudi Arabia, etc.

A process of accreditation in accordance with CSN EN 45001 standard - "General requirements for bodies operating systems of the product certification" was carried out in CAFIA in 1999.

Based on the Authorisation for accreditation to certify products No. 009/2000 that was obtained from CAI, the CAFIA, certification body No. 3074, can issue certificates of an "Accredited certification body".

GOST R System

This is provided for purpose of facilitating food export to Russian Federation. CAFIA was accredited in 1996 by authorities of the Russian Federation ČZPI - GOSSTANDART and GOSKOMSANEPIDNADZOR to carry out certification activities within the GOST R system. These authorities performed an audit in 1999 in order to provide CAFIA with a certificate for the next period.

CAFIA issued 112 final protocols in 1999 serving as a source material for certification of 205 products.

VI 1 for grape wine

CAFIA issued 188 VI 1 documents in 1999 for the export of grape wine (based on authorisation of the European Commission, DG VI Committee).

Certification within OECD

This type of certification refers to fruit and vegetables to be exported. The goods quality is determined in accordance with the valid Czech national standards (CSN) or with EHK/OSN standards. A requirement for certification is submitted together with application. As to exports, certificates were issued for fruit (304), vegetables (117) and potatoes (136). It was necessary to carry out certification procedure in 4,325,745 KG of fruit, 974,455 KG of vegetables and 5,420,298 KG of potatoes.