ISO Food Safety Certificates Rising Fastest
Certificates under ISO 22000:2005, the food safety management standard, rose by 34 percent in 2010 and rose fastest in China, Japan, and Greece.
The International Organization for Standardization has published "The ISO Survey of Certifications" for 2010. It showed there were 1,457,912 certificates and user of ISO management standards in 178 countries at the end of 2010, with the standards for information security management and food safety management increasing fastest.
The top three countries for growth in certificates were China, India, and the Republic of Korea.
"Indicating nearly a million and a half users at the end of 2010, these figures illustrate the continuing attraction of the ISO management system model pioneered by ISO 9001 for quality management and since extended to meet other challenges faced by public and private sector organizations," said ISO Secretary-General Rob Steele.
Certificates under ISO 9001:2008, the standard for quality management systems, continue to rise. At least 1,109,905 ISO 9001 certificates had been issued by the end of 2010, and this number grew by 45,120 (4 pecent) during that year. The total exceeded 1 million for the first time in 2009.
China has more ISO 9001 certificates than any other country, with Italy second and the Russian Federation third.
The total for ISO 14001:2004, the standard setting requirements for environmental management systems, stooed at 250,972 by the end of 2010, representing an increase of 27,823 (12 percent) from the previous year.