Entender las certificaciones GMP y SQF en suplementos para mascotas

GMP and SQF are not logo stickers. They are audit trails. Retailers and importers ask for them because a pretty factory tour does not prove the last batch was made the same way as the sample.

Generic "GMP vs SQF" articles on the open web are written for human food plants. Pet supplement buyers need a narrower test: is the site certified, is the scope pet-food manufacturing, and can you verify the identifier without trusting a JPEG.

This page is how to read the papers. The files themselves are on the quality page. The trip-planning version is the China OEM checklist.

What GMP is in this plant

Good Manufacturing Practice is documented process: incoming materials, hygiene, in-process checks, traceability, finished-product testing. It is a way of working. A certificate is evidence that someone audited that way of working on a date.

Our recognition is an Eurofins GMP audit, identifier ACCB8AAA422_1, score 86%, valid through 14 June 2027. If a supplier sends a GMP JPEG with no number and no date, that is marketing.

Eurofins Assurance publishes a certification directory at listings.ai.eurofins.com. Ask for the PDF first, then search the identifier and the legal name. A logo in a WeChat album is not a search.

GMP does not mean the product is "approved" as a veterinary drug. Pet supplements in the US are not pre-market authorised the way a drug is. Buyers still use GMP as a filter because it is the difference between a recipe and a repeatable batch.

What SQF adds, and why GFSI shows up in retailer emails

SQF (Safe Quality Food) is a certification scheme. GFSI (Global Food Safety Initiative) is not a certificate. GFSI benchmarks schemes. Large retailers treat a GFSI-recognised scheme as a common language so they do not invent a new audit for every country.

The relevant code here is SQF Food Safety Code: Pet Food Manufacturing (food sector category for pet food, not a generic "food" poster). Our certificate is SIN 105690, Edition 9, audit score 88, issued 20 July 2026, valid through 28 August 2027. We also hold the SQF Quality Code under the same site identifier.

If the certificate is for a different site, a trading company, or "food manufacturing" with no pet-food scope, it does not cover your chew line. Read the scope line. That is the whole skill.

Verify on SQFI's public tools: directory.sqfi.com (search / verify certified supplier certificates). Match facility name, address, certificate number, expiry and food sector category. Suspended and withdrawn certificates have their own list on the same directory.

SQF Food Safety and SQF Quality are different certificates. Food Safety is the GFSI-recognised scheme retailers name in vendor packs. Quality is an additional code on the same site. Asking for "the SQF PDF" and receiving only a Quality page without Food Safety pet-food scope is an incomplete pack.

Recertification is not the expiry date. Our SQF re-certification audit is scheduled for 14 June 2027; the current certificates run through 28 August 2027. If a supplier's PDF expired last quarter and they say "we are recertifying," you do not have a live certificate.

FDA registration is not a GMP certificate

FDA Food Facility Registration No. 10222600768 means the facility is on record for manufacturing, packing or holding food (including animal food) for the US. It is required under FSMA. It is not a gold star, and it is not an inspection report you can skip.

The registration number itself is not a public FOIA list. You cannot paste 10222600768 into a Google-like FDA search and get a green tick the way you can with SQF. What you can do:

• Ask for the registration confirmation PDF and match the legal name and address to the invoice.
• Use D-U-N-S 404129816. Since 2022 FDA has used D-U-N-S as the unique facility identifier on food facility registration. Procurement teams already search DUNS.
• Search FDA's public inspections / recalls dashboards by firm name if you want enforcement history. Absence of a dashboard hit is not a certificate.

Importers still ask for the FFR number. We put it next to DUNS so a buyer can match the legal entity. Biennial renewal: currently valid through 31 December 2026.

Chinese licences buyers forget to ask for

Feed production licence in Jiangsu (苏饲预（2026）12006) is the domestic manufacturing permission for pet additive premixed feed. Valid 26 April 2026 to 25 April 2031. Foreign buyers rarely ask for it first. Quality teams sometimes do. Have the PDF.

Unified Social Credit Code 91321283MA1MR5HB8P is the 18-digit Chinese company ID. Search it on the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System (gsxt.gov.cn) and read 经营范围 (business scope). A manufacturer should show production language, not only 销售 / 贸易.

How to verify without flying

1. Ask for PDFs, not screenshots. Screenshots hide expiry.
2. Check legal name against the invoice name: Shenzhen Enbeichong Co., Ltd., Shenzhen, Guangdong. Address on the cert should be the plant, not a showroom in another city.
3. Check dates and identifier.
4. Check SQF on directory.sqfi.com. Check Eurofins on listings.ai.eurofins.com where the listing is public.
5. Ask for a sample COA from a similar format so you see what batch paperwork looks like.

A factory that says "we will show certificates after you pay a deposit" is selling hope. A factory that emails PDFs the same day is selling manufacturing.

What a sample COA is for

A certificate says the plant was audited. A COA says this batch was tested. Ask for a sample COA from a similar format before you place the first 500. You want to see which assays appear (identity, microbes, metals: whatever that plant actually runs for that form), how the batch number is written, and whether the legal name matches the invoice.

If the sample COA is for a human gummy from another city, it is not evidence for your chew.

US brands sometimes ask for NASC. That is a US industry quality seal, not a Chinese factory licence, and it is not the same as GMP or SQF. We do not put NASC on this site because we do not hold it. If your channel requires it, say so in the brief instead of assuming every GMP plant is NASC.

FDA, AAFCO and NASC are not interchangeable

FDA CVM regulates animal food and animal drugs in the United States. A chew that claims to treat disease is a drug conversation. AAFCO writes model pet-food labelling many states still use. NASC is a voluntary industry programme for US companies that sell animal supplements. Three different jobs. The longer, sourced version is does the FDA regulate pet supplements. Public starting points: FDA animal food, AAFCO, NASC.

What certification does not do

It does not write your label claims. It does not make a 500-unit run exclusive. It does not replace a retailer-specific audit if that retailer still wants one. It does not fix a brief that never named a destination market.

It does mean, if you are comparing China plants, you can discard anyone who cannot produce current GMP evidence and a GFSI pet-food certificate for the site that will run your SKU.

BRCGS, FSSC 22000 and IFS are other GFSI-recognised schemes. They are not worse. They are not this plant. If a retailer named SQF in the vendor pack, an IFS certificate from a different site does not substitute until that retailer says it does.

If the papers check out and you want a SKU, send format and market through the quotation form. If you are still choosing a form, go back to the format comparison.