To verify an ISO 9001 certificate, look it up in the issuing certification body's own register by certificate number or company name, then confirm that body is accredited by the national accreditation body, such as ANAB in the United States, UKAS in the United Kingdom or CNAS in China. A third check is the global CertSearch database of accredited certificates, which continues under Global Accreditation Cooperation after the International Accreditation Forum merged into it on 1 January 2026. A certificate that cannot be found at the issuer is a document, not a certification.
Why This Matters
A certificate is a claim made by a certification body about a supplier, and the supplier is not the party to verify it with. Fake, altered and expired certificates circulate, along with certificates from bodies that are not accredited by anyone and certificates whose scope has nothing to do with the product being bought. Fake ISO 9001 certification among Chinese suppliers has been examined in academic research, and the patterns it describes appear everywhere.
The result should show four things: the company name exactly as registered, the standard, the scope of certification, and the validity dates. If any of them is missing or doesn't match the supplier and the product, the certificate does not support the claim being made.
How It Works
- Read the certificate. Note the certification body, the certificate number, the scope statement, the issue and expiry dates, and the accreditation mark.
- Check the issuing body's register. Every legitimate certification body publishes a lookup for the certificates it has issued. Search by number, then by company name. Confirm the scope and dates match.
- Check the body's accreditation. The national accreditation body lists the certification bodies it accredits and the standards they are accredited for. A body that is not on that list issues private opinions, not accredited certificates.
- Check the global database. CertSearch holds accredited certificates reported by accreditation bodies and their certifiers, around 400,000 at the time of the transfer to Global Accreditation Cooperation. Coverage is not complete, so absence here is a prompt to check steps 2 and 3, not a verdict.
- For Chinese suppliers, add CNCA. A management-system certificate issued to a Chinese company by a body operating in China is required to appear in the certificate query platform of the Certification and Accreditation Administration of the PRC. CNAS lists the accredited bodies.
The signals that end reliance on a certificate are consistent: an unknown certification body, no certificate number, a scope that doesn't cover the product, an expired date, a scan with no verification route, or a company name that differs from the register. The wider verification method is in how to verify a supplier online, with the Chinese specifics in verifying a Chinese supplier in 2026.
FAQ
Does IAF CertSearch still work after IAF closed?
The International Accreditation Forum ceased operations on 1 January 2026 and merged with ILAC into Global Accreditation Cooperation Incorporated, which now oversees the CertSearch database. The database continues, though coverage depends on which accreditation bodies and certifiers report into it, so use the issuer's own register as the primary check.
What does the scope on an ISO 9001 certificate mean?
The scope describes the activities and locations the certified quality system covers, for example "design and manufacture of aluminium sand castings" at a named site. A certificate whose scope covers trading, or a different product, or a different site, does not cover what you are buying, even if the company name is right.
Is a certificate from a non-accredited body worthless?
It is an opinion from a private company with no oversight of its audits. It may reflect a genuine system or may not; there is no way to know. Treat the supplier as uncertified for purposes that require accredited certification, and ask why an accredited body was not used.
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