We were surprised that one of the main issues in our topic is still the lack of understanding by the general public of the difference between a certificate of conformity and a declaration of conformity. We add a little bit of understanding on our fingers.
A certificate of conformity is a document issued by a third party. The first and second parties are the manufacturer and the consumer, the third party is an independent certification body. The certificate enables the manufacturer to CONFIRM to the consumer what he (the manufacturer) declares. The certificate is only as true as the professionalism of the expert, i.e. the certification body.
Declaration of Conformity is a document by which the First Party GUARANTEES that it has met the safety requirements for products.
And here the main difference between a declaration and a certificate is obvious: a declaration is a confirming document of the FIRST party (manufacturer), while a certificate is a document of the THIRD (independent) party.
The Declaration is a MANDATORY document if the product is subject to the requirements of the Technical Regulations*. The declaration must accompany the goods from the manufacturer to the consumer.
After the Standardization Decree expires, the certificate is almost always VOLUNTARY.
a) the consumer may REQUEST and the manufacturer is obliged to provide a declaration;
b) the consumer can REQUEST a certificate of conformity, and the manufacturer decides whether to care about customer loyalty or to comply with the regulations.
*Most of the Technical Regulations provide for the mandatory preparation of a Declaration of Conformity, but there are also those that have other requirements for confirming the conformity of products.
How a document looks doesn’t matter much; its content is much more important.
Nevertheless, the Declaration is a document issued by the manufacturer, and therefore it is most often a plain A4 sheet with text.
You can find declarations on the letterhead of the body, but this is more likely to indicate the incompetence of the manufacturer and the desire of the certification body to make money on this than the significance of the procedures performed.
The certificate is a colored BLANK, and the other thing is that there are a lot of these forms, because certification bodies are now like flies in August.
Perhaps this is all you need to know in order to understand the main difference between the documents and not make a mistake with the decision to use or create them. The only thing to add is that in the case of food products, both the certificate and the declaration of conformity are voluntary. For food products, a declaration of conformity may also be called a quality certificate or a quality certificate – they all have the same meaning: in this way, the manufacturer declares the conformity of the product on its own behalf.
