Importers and distributors sit in an awkward spot: you did not make the product, but you are the one your customers ask for the certificate. Whether you need certification of your own depends on one question — do you do anything to the product?
The test
| What you do | Do you need your own certification? |
|---|---|
| Move sealed, labelled product from a certified producer to a customer | Generally no — you pass through the producer’s certification |
| Repackage from bulk into retail units | Yes — you are manufacturing |
| Relabel under your own brand | Usually yes |
| Blend, portion, or combine products | Yes |
| Break bulk into smaller sealed units | Usually yes |
| Warehouse sealed product only | Generally no |
The principle: sealed product carrying its producer’s certification travels on that certification. The moment you open it, change it or put your own name on it, the certification has to cover what you did.
Private-label importing is the case people misjudge most. If product arrives in bulk and is packed under your brand, that packing operation is production and needs covering — even though you changed nothing about the food.
What you need from your suppliers
This is the bulk of the work for most importers, and it is administrative rather than technical:
- A current letter of certification from each producing facility — naming the facility, listing the products by the codes you buy, stating the designation, and in date.
- A recognisable certifying agency. Certificates from overseas agencies vary enormously in reliability, and your customers’ agencies will judge them. If you cannot verify an issuer, treat it as unverified.
- The designation for each item — pareve, dairy, dairy equipment, meat, fish. Your customers need this and it will not be obvious from the product.
- Any additional standards stated explicitly if your market requires them.
Imported certificates carry two recurring problems worth planning for: documents in another language, and agencies unfamiliar in your destination market. Both are solvable, but both take time, so build them into your lead times rather than your surprises.
The documentation discipline that actually matters
An importer’s kosher exposure is almost entirely a records problem:
- Track every supplier certificate’s expiry date centrally, with a reminder ahead of each. Supplier certificates expire on their own schedule and nobody will tell you.
- Match certificates to what you actually import. A producer certified for twelve products may not be certified for the thirteenth you just added.
- Re-verify when a producer changes plant, ownership or formulation.
- Keep the documents, not a note that they existed. Your customer’s agency may ask for the original.
- Check the designation at every renewal, because a supplier moving a product from pareve to dairy equipment changes what your customers can do with it.
If you import from many producers, this is a real workload, and it is the part that fails quietly. A lapsed certificate for one line is usually discovered by a customer rather than by you.
What your customers are actually asking for
When a retail buyer or a manufacturing customer asks “is this kosher?”, they mean: can you give me a current certificate, naming this facility, listing this product code, with the designation on it, that my own agency can verify?
An importer who can produce that inside an hour has a real advantage over one who has to email a supplier in another time zone and wait. Several distributors we work with keep a current certificate pack per supplier and send it with quotes unprompted. It closes business.
Shipping, storage and transport
Usually a non-issue for sealed packaged goods, but worth knowing where it is not:
- Sealed retail packaging in ordinary containers raises no question.
- Bulk liquids in tankers do. Tanker history and cleaning matter, and this needs arranging with your certifier in advance.
- Bulk dry goods in shared containers or totes may need attention depending on what moved before.
- Some products require sealing and documented custody in transit. This is the exception, not the rule, but if it applies to you it has to be designed in.
Working out what you need
Tell us what you import, from whom, what you do to it before it reaches your customers, and whether you sell under your own brand. We will tell you plainly whether your operation needs its own certification or whether you simply need clean documentation from your suppliers — and if it is the latter, we will say so.
Get a free quote, or read how to read a certificate — directly useful for vetting the ones your suppliers send you.