How to Verify an Indian GMP Certificate: A Buyer's Guide

Why GMP Certificate Verification Is Not Optional

GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) certification is one of the first documents buyers request from Indian herbal ingredient suppliers — and one of the most frequently misrepresented. Certificates from private, unaccredited certification bodies are common. Expired or scope-limited certificates are presented without disclosure. And in some cases, the document itself is altered.

This guide explains the four GMP standards in use across Indian herbal supply chains, how to trace the accreditation chain behind any certificate, and the steps to verify a specific certificate before it goes into your supplier qualification file.

The Four GMP Standards Used by Indian Herbal Suppliers

Indian herbal ingredient and botanical extract manufacturers operate under one or more of these standards:

WHO-GMP (WHO Technical Report Series 986, Annex 2)

The most internationally recognised standard for herbal ingredient exporters. WHO-GMP is administered through India’s Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) and state drug regulatory authorities. It is recognised by regulatory bodies in the EU, GCC, Southeast Asia, Australia, and many other markets as a baseline for import compliance. When a buyer says “I need GMP certification,” WHO-GMP is typically what they mean.

Schedule M (Indian Pharmaceutical GMP)

India’s domestic pharmaceutical GMP standard, governed by the Drugs and Cosmetics Act 1940. It is the mandatory baseline for any facility holding a manufacturing licence from an Indian state drug authority. However, Schedule M compliance alone — without WHO-GMP verification — is generally not accepted by international buyers as a substitute for internationally recognised GMP, because the standard and inspection regime are applied domestically rather than by internationally benchmarked auditors.

USFDA-Compliant GMP (21 CFR Parts 111 and 117)

21 CFR Part 111 governs dietary supplement manufacturing for the US market. 21 CFR Part 117 governs food manufacturing. USFDA compliance is verified through facility registration on the FDA’s Food Facility Registration database and, for higher-risk facilities, through FDA inspections. A supplier claiming USFDA GMP compliance should be able to provide their FDA registration number, verifiable at accessdata.fda.gov.

EU-GMP

Required for ingredients entering the European Union as active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) or certain medicinal-product inputs. EU-GMP is strictly audited. Most Indian herbal raw-material exporters operate at WHO-GMP level rather than full EU-GMP — confirm whether EU-GMP is actually required for your product category before specifying it.

The Accreditation Chain: Who Certifies the Certifier?

A GMP certificate is only as credible as the body that issued it. The accreditation chain works as follows:

1. A national accreditation body (such as NABCB in India, or UKAS in the UK) accredits certification bodies to issue management-system certificates.
2. An accredited certification body audits the supplier facility and, if the audit passes, issues the GMP certificate.
3. The supplier presents the GMP certificate to buyers as evidence of compliance.

The national accreditation body is the point of independent oversight. Certification bodies that are not accredited by a national body recognised under the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) mutual recognition arrangement are operating outside this oversight structure.

The credible national accreditation bodies to look for in the context of Indian supplier certificates are:

• NABCB — National Accreditation Board for Certification Bodies (India). Search accredited certification bodies at nabcb.qci.org.in.
• UKAS — United Kingdom Accreditation Service. Search at ukas.com.
• DAkkS — Deutsche Akkreditierungsstelle (Germany). Search at dakks.de.
• ANAB — ANSI National Accreditation Board (USA). Search at anab.org.
• JAB — Japan Accreditation Board. Search at jab.or.jp.

If the certification body named on a certificate does not appear in the accreditation database of any IAF-member national body, [Certain] the certificate carries no independent verification weight.

Step-by-Step: Verifying a Specific Certificate

Step 1: Note the certification body name, certificate number, issue date, and expiry date from the certificate.

Step 2: Find the certification body’s official website independently — search by name, do not use any web link provided on the certificate itself. A forged or altered certificate may carry a genuine-looking link that redirects to a different page.

Step 3: Check whether the certification body is accredited. Look for their accreditation status on the relevant national accreditation body’s database (NABCB, UKAS, etc.). Many certification bodies list their accreditation reference number on their website — cross-check it on the national accreditation body’s public search.

Step 4: Contact the certification body directly using the contact details on their official website. Ask them to confirm:

• That certificate number [X] was issued to [supplier name] at [facility address].
• The scope of certification (which product categories and which manufacturing site are covered).
• The current validity status (active, under surveillance, suspended, or expired).

Step 5: For USFDA facility registration, go to accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/oie/OIECT.cfm and search by company name or registration number. This is a public database and does not require a call to the FDA.

Step 6: Check the certificate scope against your ingredient. A GMP certificate may cover “herbal powder manufacturing” but not “standardised extract production” — or may cover Site A of a facility but not Site B. Confirm the scope explicitly covers the product and production site relevant to your order.

Common Misrepresentations and Red Flags

Unaccredited private certifiers: Certificates from bodies such as “UK-ARCT,” “UKAF CERT Limited,” or similar names that cannot be verified in any IAF-member national accreditation database are the most common red flag encountered in Indian herbal supplier qualification. [Likely] these are not forgeries — they are certificates from real but non-accredited commercial bodies. They indicate a supplier who has paid for the appearance of certification without obtaining independently verified compliance.

Outdated standard version: GMP standards are revised periodically. A certificate citing an old version of FSSC 22000 (the current standard is v6, issued 2023) may indicate the certification has not been updated to current requirements. Ask the supplier for the current version or a letter confirming revision status.

Scope mismatch: A certificate covering “food ingredients” does not automatically cover pharmaceutical-grade herbal extracts. Confirm the scope language matches your product category.

Expired certificates: Always confirm the certificate is within its validity period. Ask for the most recent surveillance audit report as additional evidence of continued compliance.

Address inconsistency: If the address on the certificate does not match the address on the COA or company registration documents, ask for an explanation before accepting the document. Registered-office and correspondence-address differences are common and usually benign — but unexplained address mismatches across documents warrant a question.

For a broader framework on supplier document review beyond GMP certification, see our Indian herbal supplier due diligence checklist. For the certifications specific to Lakadong Turmeric sourcing, see our Lakadong Turmeric certifications guide.

Working with Ayris Global

Ayris Global pre-qualifies every Indian herbal ingredient supplier’s GMP and certification documentation before presenting them to international buyers. We check accreditation chains, verify certificate validity, and flag misrepresentations — so buyers receive a qualification-ready documentation package, not a raw stack of certificates to decode.

Contact Ayris Global to discuss your sourcing requirements.