Built for a Different World: The Current Certification Situation
The current food certification ecosystem was never designed for the world we live in today. When ISO, GFSI, and other certification schemes were created, they could not anticipate our modern reality. There were no app groups, no ChatGPT, no freelance auditor networks, and certainly no auditors working for multiple certification bodies while also running their own consulting or e-learning businesses.
Back in time, the model made sense: clear roles, defined hierarchies, and stable employment were the foundation for control, impartiality, and trust.
Today, the reality is far more complex, and the ecosystem has not yet adapted to that new reality.
The New Audit Landscape: Flexible, Digital, and Fragmented
The audit world has transformed in just a few years:
- Freelance auditors are the new norm, many juggling contracts with multiple certification bodies simultaneously.
- Auditors increasingly double as consultants or trainers, selling advice, online tools, and e-learning modules to the very industry they are meant to police.
- Informal app groups have become backchannels for discussing audit findings, interpretations, and “grey cases” in real-time—often completely outside the official report trail.
- Capacity pressure leads to problematic shortcuts. Unannounced audits may be conducted by entirely new auditors or bundled with witness audits, often without prior consent or context.
This hybrid ecosystem fundamentally blurs the traditional boundaries between auditing, consulting, and commerce.
While this model enables flexibility and speed, it also introduces systemic risks to impartiality, consistency, and transparency.
A System Mismatch: Blaming the Framework, Not the People
Let’s be clear: this is not an attack on GFSI or the people working within the system. On the contrary, GFSI standards have been instrumental in improving food safety worldwide. Most freelance auditors are highly skilled professionals, passionate about helping companies improve.
The issue lies in the framework itself. Certification systems are still built on assumptions of stable employment, controlled communication channels, and a clear separation of interests.
Those assumptions simply no longer hold true in today’s flexible and digital world. As a result, we see growing grey zones around impartiality, communication, data sharing, and responsibility.
Even auditors themselves struggle to navigate these unclear expectations—wanting to do the right thing, but operating within structures that no longer fit how people actually work.
The Practical Consequences for Food Companies‘ Certification
For food companies, this new reality is confusing and often unfair. They are left to experience:
- Unannounced auditors arriving without any prior introduction.
- Audit findings being discussed live in app groups, with unseen participants influencing the conclusions.
- Technical reviewers getting involved in the audit itself, completely undermining the independence of the review stage.
- Consultants and auditors offering competing compliance tools, blurring the essential line between verification and service.
Meanwhile, the TIC industry (Testing, Inspection,Certification) is consolidating rapidly. Private Equity investors are pushing for maximum efficiency, while certification bodies struggle with basic planning and resourcing.
The market has become a power play. The food companies, who must stay compliant every single day, are caught in the middle.
How We See What Others Miss: The iMIS Food Network
Our insights come from a unique vantage point: managing the iMIS Food network, which connects food companies across 10 countries. The iMIS Food platform captures real-time feedback on compliance, audit outcomes, and process data. This means we don’t just see isolated problems; we see emerging patterns as they form.
We are the first to spot issues like:
- Identical non-conformities clustering across different, unrelated certification bodies.
- Auditors arriving for inspections without transparent handovers from colleagues.
- The “official” audit trail being bypassed by unstructured tools like WhatsApp and Teams.
These are not minor issues; they are systemic warning signs. Our connected infrastructure is designed to detect these patterns, giving companies the data they need to stay in control.
A Shared Goal, an Evolving Certification System
The shared purpose is clear: improving food safety. However, systems must evolve with reality. Certification frameworks designed for the fax and binder era cannot function in a world driven by instant messaging, AI, and global freelance networks.
It is time to rethink how assurance is validated. Models are needed that are open, connected, and data-driven—without losing the impartiality that trust depends on.
From Validation to Real-Time Assurance
The path forward is not to replace certification but to strengthen its foundation.
At QAssurance, our focus is on building a real-time assurance infrastructure to provide that stable data foundation. This approach is designed to counter the fragmentation and “grey zones” discussed earlier.
By creating a single source of truth—underpinned by continuous compliance monitoring, integrated legislative updates, and verified document control—it provides a clear, shared platform for both companies and auditors.
Furthermore, it restores accountability by enabling fully traceable audit trails and structured feedback loops.
This is what transforms auditing from a periodic “snapshot” into a continuous process—one that finally supports learning, accountability, and systemic improvement.
The Way Forward
Certification remains an essential cornerstone of food safety, but it must evolve to stay credible in the digital age.
That evolution requires:
- Updating impartiality frameworks for a freelance reality.
- Integrating transparency for multi-channel communication (app, chat, AI).
- Rebalancing audit scheduling to ensure fairness and predictability.
- Leveraging real-time data systems to verify compliance objectively.
Combining the strength of GFSI principles with the real-time intelligence of platforms like iMIS Food is the key. This will forge an ecosystem that works for everyone—auditors, certification bodies, and the food companies carrying the daily responsibility for safety.
Conclusion
The certification world doesn’t need less oversight—it needs smarter assurance.
Systems are needed that understand the modern audit reality and protect the industry’s shared mission: safe food, trusted processes, and continuous improvement.
Without adaptation, impartiality will become impossible to guarantee. That failure won’t come from bad intentions, but because the system itself is out of sync with how people now work and communicate.
Bridging that gap, in real time, is precisely why iMIS Food was built.
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