Discover Cofrac

Cofrac: a history of confidence and trust

In France, accreditation existed long before the creation of Cofrac. Between the 1970s and 1990s, accreditation was managed by two distinct bodies, and it only concerned the industrial sector.

Cofrac was created in 1994, at the initiative of the public authorities, following the publication of a White Paper on the establishment of the common market. The objective was to put in place a Euro-compatible system that was compliant with international practices concerning the accreditation of conformity assessment bodies, aimed at encouraging mutual recognition of the services carried out by the accredited entities. The creation of a new entity also made it possible to anticipate the developments linked to accreditation, beyond the industrial sector alone.

The Economic Modernisation Act of 2008 designated Cofrac as the sole "national accreditation body" approved to issue accreditations in France to conformity assessment bodies, in line with regulation 765/2008 of the European Parliament and Council, whatever the sector concerned.

Cofrac is therefore the apex of the public authorities' trust pyramid.

Cofrac's vocation: to give you confidence in the inspections carried out

Every day we are all in contact with a product, a facility, a service or a company inspected by a body accredited by Cofrac. Accreditation enables the competitive inspection market to be technically regulated and prevents dangerous or unfair behaviour.

By reinforcing the quality and reliability of inspections, Cofrac helps to reinforce the safety of persons and goods, the health of patients or workers, the fairness of transactions, and indeed the protection of our planet.

Cofrac: our mission statement

Cofrac's general mission can be summarised in two points :

• ensuring the competence and impartiality of conformity assessment bodies by carrying out their accreditation in compliance with the applicable international standards ;
• achieving, at European and international level, the broadest possible acceptance of the conformity certificates issued by the bodies that it has accredited, arising from mutual recognition arrangements.

Cofrac benefits not only from the confidence of the public authorities, but also from that of its partners, the accredited bodies and their clients: an ecosystem of several thousand stakeholders. This role demands from our teams a high level of competence, impartiality and efficiency, all of which they demonstrate daily.