The scheme

How certification is granted, changed and taken away

Every rule under which a certificate can start, change or end. Published because a certification body that keeps its own rules private is asking to be taken on trust.

Granting

The certificate is issued after the ingredient review, the plant inspection and a decision by the Rav HaMachshir — recorded against that exact draft, without which nothing issues. That the person who decides is not the person who evaluated is a rule this body holds itself to and evidences in the file; it is not yet something our software enforces, and we say so rather than imply otherwise.

Then — The record is published to the register and the mark artwork is released for the products listed.

Maintaining

Certification continues only under surveillance: announced and unannounced plant visits, ingredient spot-checks against your approved list, and re-verification of every supplier letter.

Then — Nothing changes on the register. Validity is the result of the surveillance, not of the passage of time.

Extending

Adding products, designations or a production line at the facility already certified. Treated as a decision, not an edit: the additions are evaluated and decided in the same way as the original grant.

Then — A revised certificate is issued under the same number, and the register shows the enlarged scope. A second production SITE is not an extension: certification is granted per facility, so another plant is a separate evaluation and a separate certificate.

Reducing

Removing products or sites while the rest of the certificate continues. Either because you asked, or because a finding affects part of the scope and only that part.

Then — A revised certificate is issued and the mark may no longer be used on what was removed. Be told the rest plainly rather than discover it: the register shows the corrected scope, but not that a reduction happened or why — the scheme records at 19.9 and 21.7 that a reduction has no operating path of its own, so ask the office what can actually be shown before you rely on it.

Suspending

Certification is paused. Used where a finding is serious enough that we cannot stand behind the products for now, but the situation is recoverable.

Then — The register shows Suspended the same day. Applying the mark to the suspended products stops at once, and so does advertising that refers to their certification — but product already lawfully marked may continue to be sold unless the suspension notice says otherwise, and unused packaging is not destroyed. We give you a named contact and a written list of what must happen to lift it.

Withdrawing

Certification is revoked permanently — a critical failure, refusal of access, or a suspension that was never resolved.

Then — The register shows Withdrawn permanently. Use of the mark ends immediately, unused packaging must be destroyed, and continued use is pursued as trademark infringement.

Ending by agreement

You choose not to continue, or production stops. No finding against you is involved.

Then — The register says the certification ended by agreement, and says explicitly that it was not revoked. We will not let a client who simply left be read as one who was sanctioned.

Refusing

An application that does not meet the requirements is refused, with reasons in writing. We also decline applications we are not competent or staffed to evaluate.

Then — Nothing is published — a refusal is not a public event. You may appeal it.

What kind of scheme this is

The product is assessed, the production process behind it is assessed, somebody independent decides, a licence to use the mark is granted — and the certificate stays valid only while surveillance of that process continues. It is the model that fits ongoing food production, and it is the reason we visit rather than re-read paperwork once a year.

The requirements themselves are halachic, determined under our rabbinic authority. Our classifications reference sets out what each status on a certificate means, and the supervision process sets out the twelve stages in detail.

The two documents

This body publishes two. The scheme is what Emet does — everything on this page is its summary. The requirements are what a manufacturer must meet: ingredients, plant, production, private label, labelling, and the duty to tell us before a change. They were one document, and a manufacturer reading it had to sift the half addressed to them out of the half describing our own impartiality arrangements.

The scheme itself — the rules Emet is bound by, in full — is published as EMET-S-01, revision 5, effective 2026-09-15. It is designed as a type 5 product certification scheme within the meaning of ISO/IEC 17067:2013, written to align with ISO/IEC 17065:2012, with Codex CXC 1-1969 as the hygiene baseline against which a plant is inspected.

A type 5 scheme has two surveillance limbs: assessment of the production process, and sampling of the marked product itself. Only the first is operating. Until product sampling exists as a record, Emet does not claim to be running a complete type 5 scheme — the scheme says so in its own clauses 18.1 and 18.8, and marks it the most serious of the requirements it does not yet meet, rather than leaving you to find out.

The whole document — including the clauses where it records that a requirement is not yet met — is sent to anyone who asks for it: a holder, an applicant, a rabbinic authority, an assessor. This page is the summary of what is in it. Emet holds no accreditation and does not claim that its alignment with those standards has been assessed by anyone; where the scheme itself records a gap, that record governs.

Part I — what is certified, the halachic authority, and every term the scheme uses
Part II — what Emet itself is held to: impartiality, competence, confidentiality, and the management of the body
Part III — application, ingredient review, plant inspection, and the decision
Part IV — the register, surveillance, changes, suspension and withdrawal, records, complaints and appeals
Part V — the mark, what each variant asserts, and the licence to use it
Part VI — classifications, ingredient risk categories, the inspection checklist, document control, and how the scheme is kept current

Reading the whole thing. Ask us and we will send it — whether you hold a certificate, are considering one, or are a rabbinic authority or an assessor who needs the rules before trusting a certificate issued under them — info@emetkosher.com.

What a certificate holder is entitled to, and what they take on

Both sides are written down before anything is certified, in a single agreement the holder reads and accepts before we issue. It is not a formality: every sanction below rests on obligations they took on in advance, and none of it is enforceable against somebody who never agreed to it.

What we owe them. Decisions made on evidence by people with no interest in the outcome. No consultancy — we never design, formulate or build the thing we are asked to certify. The same requirements for everyone, whatever their size and however much they certify with us. Written reasons for any adverse decision, and an appeal decided by somebody who took no part in making it. Confidentiality over everything except what this register publishes.

What they take on. Meeting the requirements every production day, not only on inspection day. Giving us access — records, premises, equipment, people and their subcontractors — including on visits we have not announced, and cooperating with sampling. Telling us before a change, never after. Using the mark only on the products and facilities on their schedule, only from artwork we approved, and stopping at once when a certificate is suspended, reduced or withdrawn. Keeping a record of kosher-related complaints they receive and showing it to us.

The restrictions on the mark are set out in the mark usage guide issued with every certificate, which forms part of the same agreement. Complaints and appeals and how we are paid are published, because a body that keeps either private is asking to be taken on trust.

Changes you must tell us about, before they happen

Ingredients, suppliers, formulation, processing aids, shared equipment, the place of manufacture, ownership, and the people responsible for production. Approval is never retrospective: using the mark after an unapproved change is unauthorised use, and it is the most common way a certificate is lost.

Tell us through your portal, or write to info@emetkosher.com. Tell us early: a change we hear about in advance is usually approved, and one we find during supervision usually is not.