ISO 9001:2015 aims to ensure the quality of the product or service of any organization. It provides systematic control of business operations in order to meet customers’ requirements, needs and expectations. Furthermore, it enables individual organizations to demonstrate the effective planning, control and operation of their processes, resulting in cost reduction and business productivity improvement. Any company, irrespective of their scope of activity, can be certified under this standard.

ISO 9001:2015 is the updated revised version of ISO 9001:2008. Following guidelines from the International Standard Organization, all companies have to transfer to the revised standard until September 2018 as a final date.

The Environmental Management Systems (EMS) Requirements provide the right framework to organizations in order to be able to protect the environment, and respond to changing environmental conditions, in balance and relation with socio-economic needs.

The Standard addresses the effort of any company to systematically approach environmental issues, to demonstrate environmental awareness and build success over protecting the environment, control the way products and services are designed, manufactured, distributed, consumed and disposed. As a result, financial and operational benefits are achieved since the organization is in the process of implementing environmentally sound alternatives.

Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points, widely known as HACCP is a set of principles providing a systematic preventive approach for the management of food safety, from biological, physical and chemical hazards relevant to production or assembly processes that can lead to unsafe finished product, as well as design measurements to reduce these risks to a safe level.

HACCP allows the recognition, control and prevention of those hazards, and aims at eliminating incidents of food poisoning, illness, consumption of unsafe food or drinks, or the encounter of unwanted substances or foreign bodies.

GMP refers to the Good Manufacturing Practice Regulations published by the US Food and Drug Administration. A GMP is a system for ensuring that products are consistently produced and controlled according to quality standards. GMPs are designed and implemented in a range of companies from pharmaceutical production to food businesses.

GMP rules cover all aspects of staff training in the production cycle, audit and storage, as well as the appropriateness of premises, equipment, raw and packaging. These rules also address waste management, subcontracting, customer complaints and returns. For proper implementation, there must be documented procedures to be followed at all stages of production.

Τhe British Retail Consortium (BRC) has developed and introduced the BRC Global Standard for Food Safety for companies supplying retailer branded food products. The standard was developed to assist retailers in their fulfilment of legal obligations and protection of the consumer. It provides a common basis for the audit of companies supplying retailer branded food products.

The benefit of the BRC Global Standard is the reduction of the number of food safety audits which allows technologists to concentrate on other areas, such as product development, or specific quality issues. Although the BRC food safety standard began in the UK, it is now recognized as a global standard.

Similarly, BRC's Global Standard for Packaging and Packaging Material is addressed to companies that manufacture food packaging or materials, to be used in the manufacturing of food packaging, while BRC Global Standard for Storage and Distribution is addressed to companies dealing with the storage and distribution of goods.

The ISMS Standard sets the requirements for preservation of the confidentiality, integrity and availability of information. It has been prepared to provide the necessary requirements for the establishment, implementation, maintenance and continuous improvement of an information security management system.

The Standard also identifies the requirements necessary for the assessment and treatment of information security risks according to the needs of the organization.

It applies to all sectors of industry, commerce and services, and addresses information security in any way it is preserved, either internally or by external provider.

The Energy Management Systems (ISO 50001:2011) Standard applies to all types and sizes of organizations to help improve their energy performance, increase their energy efficiency and mitigate their impact on climate change.

ISO 50001 provides a framework for the proper and significant use of energy resources, including good practices for reducing pollutant emissions and implementing new energy efficient technologies. It specifies energy management systems (EnMS) requirements that can be followed in order to develop and implement an energy policy, by establishing objectives, targets and action plans.

ISO 26000 provides guidance to companies and organizations on how to operate in a socially responsible way. This refers to ethical and transparent behavior which contributes to the health and welfare of society and on understanding, implementing and continuously improving their social responsibility. This is understood as the impacts of an organization’s actions have on society and the environment.

This standard cannot be certified due to its guidance nature. However, it assists with the clarification of the terms “social responsibility”, and translates principles into effective actions. It targets all types of organizations, regardless of activity, size or location.

ΙSO 22301 aims at providing preparatory measures and business procedures to reduce the impact of any unforeseen event (such as materials’ failure, strikes, natural disasters), which could interrupt the business cycle.

The standard emphasizes the importance of planning, establishing, implementing, operating, monitoring, maintaining and continually improving the effectiveness of the Business Continuity Management System of any organization. It sets the requirements for understanding the needs of the organization and implementing any controls and measures for managing an organization’s capability to manage disruptive abrupt events.

The goal of the Business Continuity Management System ensures that any interruption to business cycle remains minimal to protect business continuity and reduce losses in turnover, profits and corporate reputation.