Check a supplier's ISCC certificate before you buy

What the check shows

A compliance or sourcing team usually wants four facts about a supplier's certificate, read from the issuer rather than from a PDF the supplier sent:

• Holder: the company and address the issuer lists, so you can see whether the certificate belongs to the seller in front of you or to another company in its group.
• Scope: what the holder is certified to do, such as point of origin, collecting point, trader with storage or processing unit. A trader's certificate does not cover a plant.
• Material: the raw materials the certificate names, for example used cooking oil or Category 1/2 animal fat. A certificate that does not name your material does not cover it.
• Validity: the date it started and the date it ends, and whether it is current, expired, ended early or not yet valid on the day you check.

The check also lists the holder's earlier certificates, so you see the history and not only today's document.

The dated signals

Each signal comes with the date it refers to. None of them proves a problem with a lot; each one is a question for the first call.

• Ended early: the issuer shows an end date before the planned one. The check says whether a newer certificate took over.
• Gap: days passed between one certificate's end and the next one's start, when the holder was not certified.
• No newer certificate: the latest certificate is over and no current certificate replaces it.
• Expires soon: the current certificate ends in 30 days or less.
• Body changed: a different certification body issued the newer certificate, within the last two years.

A worked example

This is the certificate of the sample record on our home page, laid out as the check shows it.

How it reads the issuer

• Each check asks the ISCC certificate database when you run it. Nothing about the certificate is saved to your workspace or to our database; the same question may be answered from a copy kept for up to a day.
• Only ISCC is searched live by this check. REDcert and KZR INiG are not searched live: for a certificate on an OxyLens source, the check answers from our weekly read of the issuer list and says its date. For the sources in OxyLens, ISCC, REDcert and KZR INiG certificates are rechecked against their issuer lists every week, and each source record shows the result. The ISCC, REDcert and KZR INiG lists were last read on 2026-10-26.
• A company name that matches more than 10 holders asks you to be more specific. A legal form or a place on its own is too broad.
• A current certificate shows the holder was audited for the scheme. It does not show that a given lot is compliant, available or for sale.

Who can use it

The check is part of OxyLens Full, at €120 a month or €1,200 a year, excl. VAT, for one user and one workspace, together with the contacts, evidence and map behind every seller. A free account shows the seller lists of every market so you can see what is covered first.

Read more about how OxyLens checks a source, or see the used cooking oil and animal fats markets.