GMP, USFDA, FSSAI, APEDA & More: What Each Certification Means When You Buy From India

Shortlist an Indian supplier and you meet a wall of acronyms — APEDA, SHEFEXIL, FSSAI, IEC, DGFT, GMP, USFDA, ISO, HACCP, Kosher, Halal. They are not interchangeable, and knowing which is which tells you a great deal about who you are dealing with. Two distinctions matter up front: some certifications belong to the trading company (the exporter) and some belong to the manufacturing facility; and some are legal requirements to export at all, while others are voluntary quality or market-access marks.

Company registrations — the licence to export

These are held by the exporting company and are the baseline. Without them a company legally cannot export food from India.

• IEC (Importer-Exporter Code) — issued by DGFT, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade. The statutory code that authorises any Indian entity to import or export. No IEC, no legal export.
• APEDA — the Agricultural & Processed Food Products Export Development Authority. Registration plus an RCMC is mandatory for scheduled products such as mango and pulses.
• SHEFEXIL — the Shellac & Forest Products Export Promotion Council, which covers psyllium, seeds and several agro/forest lines.
• FSSAI — the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India licence, required to handle and trade food within India.

Facility certifications — where the product is actually made

These belong to the manufacturing plant, not the trader. India runs an asset-light model well: a reputable exporter partners with audited facilities rather than owning one. The question to ask is not whether the company lists GMP, but whether the specific facility that will make your product holds it.

• GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) — the plant follows documented, hygienic, reproducible manufacturing and quality control. The baseline for supplements and food.
• USFDA-registered — the facility is registered with the US Food & Drug Administration, which is required to ship food or supplements to the USA. Note that "registered" is not the same as FDA "approved".
• ISO 22000 / 9001 — food-safety and quality-management system certification.
• HACCP — Hazard Analysis & Critical Control Points, a systematic food-safety risk framework.

Market & religious certifications — access, not quality

These open specific markets or retail shelves rather than describing quality.

• Halal — for GCC and Muslim-majority markets.
• Kosher — for Jewish dietary markets and many US and EU retailers who require it as a listing condition.
• Organic (NPOP / NOP / EU) — certified-organic status where your market or brand demands it; available on request for several lines.

What to actually ask a supplier

You do not need every logo. You need the ones your order and your market require — and proof they are live.

• Which of these are your company registrations, and which belong to the facility making my product?
• Can you share the certificate copies, with numbers and validity dates?
• Is the facility USFDA-registered if I am shipping to the US, and does it hold what my retailer requires (Kosher, Halal, Organic)?
• Will I get a Certificate of Analysis per lot, plus the destination document set — Certificate of Origin, phytosanitary certificate and the rest?

The point is not to collect logos. It is to match the certifications to what your order and your market actually need, and to know which are legal must-haves versus nice-to-haves. A supplier who can explain the difference clearly is usually one who understands your compliance burden — and that is worth more than a longer list of acronyms.