The Q-Mark isn't a test you pass. It's a record you keep.
Ugandan manufacturers usually prepare for UNBS certification the way you would prepare for an exam — get the sample right, get the audit day right. The scheme documents describe something different. From the first re-certification onwards, UNBS requires records: quality monitoring for raw materials, process monitoring, final product inspection, cleaning schedules, and verification or calibration of measuring equipment. Records are not produced on audit day. They are produced continuously, or they are reconstructed — and reconstruction is what auditors are trained to notice.
Four schemes, and the record obligation starts at the second.
The reference document is UNBS CERT/PC/F18, "Distinctive Mark Certification Requirements", Issue 01 Rev 00, effective 30 July 2018. It sets out the certification scheme in four tiers. We quote the record requirement directly because it is the part most often summarised away:
Scheme A — Bronze, initial certification
An initial audit before certification is granted: product conformity verified by independent testing in a UNBS or UNBS-recognised laboratory, conforming labelling, valid medical certificates for staff in food companies, correct additive use, proper storage of raw materials and finished product, package integrity and quantity verification, and cleanliness of personnel, equipment and environment. Permit valid one year; re-certification applied for three months before expiry.
Scheme B — Silver, first re-certification
Everything above, plus record keeping: "Quality monitoring records for raw materials (e.g. COAs), process monitoring and final product inspection reports"; "Cleaning schedules and records"; "Verification and/or calibration of measuring equipment". Re-certification is decided on annual surveillance performance and on tests of samples taken from the market or the factory.
Scheme C — Gold, three years and up
For companies with at least three years on the scheme and demonstrated consistent conformance. Requires market sampling and testing at least once a year for the sector, payment of factory evaluation and sampling fees, and a full factory evaluation every three years covering GMP, QA/QC and product. Annual permit renewal within the three-year cycle; apply every year, three months before expiry.
Scheme D — Platinum, management systems
For clients already holding valid UNBS certification for GMP, HACCP, ISO 22000 or ISO 9001. Product certification renews automatically provided the management system certification stays valid, the audit programme is adhered to, and surveillance samples conform.
Products covered by compulsory standards must carry the Q-Mark before they may be placed on the market, so for a large part of Ugandan manufacturing this is not a marketing badge but a condition of trading.
Check the current revision. CERT/PC/F18 carries an effective date of 30 July 2018 and we were not able to confirm whether a later revision exists — the copy we worked from is the official document as published through Uganda's trade portal. Ask UNBS for the current issue before building a compliance programme on the detail here, and treat this page as orientation rather than as the controlling document.
The obligation is continuous. Most factories meet it discontinuously.
Read the Scheme B wording literally. It does not ask for evidence that the process was capable. It asks for records of process monitoring — meaning a record of what the process was doing, kept as a matter of routine. On most Ugandan plants that record exists in three forms, and all three have the same weakness:
- A logbook filled in every two hours. Which means the process is unrecorded for 22 hours of every 24, and entirely unrecorded on the night shift at many plants — precisely the shift where deviation is most likely and supervision thinnest.
- A chart recorder nobody has re-inked. Common on older pasteurisers and ovens, and usually the first thing an auditor asks to see.
- A PLC that holds the value and forgets it. The control system knows the temperature perfectly, and retains it for as long as the screen displays it.
The consequence is that when an auditor asks what happened on a particular batch, on a particular night, the answer is assembled from memory and inference. That is survivable until something goes wrong — and then the absence of the record becomes the finding, independently of whether the product was ever unsafe.
Why "calibration services in Uganda" is a search term.
Scheme B's third record requirement is "verification and/or calibration of measuring equipment". It is a short line with a long tail: every instrument your quality decisions depend on needs an identity, a calibration history and a schedule — and the instruments in question are usually a mixture of laboratory equipment, in-line process instruments and the thermometer somebody bought locally three years ago.
Two things follow that are worth separating clearly:
Calibration is a laboratory service
Traceable calibration is performed by an accredited calibration laboratory. That is a distinct service with its own accreditation requirements, and it is where your certificates come from. Uganda has a market for it — which is exactly why the term is searched.
The record around it is an engineering job
An instrument register with make, model and serial number; the parameter, range and frequency for each; the due date and the certificate on file; and the alert when something is out of date. That is a data problem, and it is the half that fails between calibrations rather than during them.
Our work is the second: instrumenting the process so the monitoring record exists automatically, and holding the instrument register and calibration schedule alongside it so the two halves of the requirement live in one place rather than in a folder and a technician's head.
Making the record produce itself.
- The critical process variables, continuously. Temperature, pressure, time, flow, pH — whichever your standard and your process specify. Read from the PLC where it exists, from new instruments where it doesn't, and retained rather than displayed.
- Batch context. Readings tied to a batch or run identifier, so "show me what happened on that batch" is a query rather than an archaeology project.
- Cold chain and storage. Cold rooms, chillers and finished-goods stores, with the deviation alert going to a phone rather than to a chart nobody reads on Monday.
- Cleaning cycles. CIP temperature, duration and conductivity where applicable, which turns "cleaning schedules and records" from a signed sheet into evidence that the cycle actually ran to specification.
- Instrument register and calibration schedule. Every measuring device with its identity, range, frequency, last certificate and next due date, with alerts before expiry rather than after.
- Export for audit. Any period, any parameter, any batch, in a form you can hand over — which is what makes surveillance and the three-yearly full factory evaluation an exercise in retrieval rather than in preparation.
Where the laboratory stays. Product conformity is established by testing in a UNBS or UNBS-recognised laboratory, and traceable calibration is performed by accredited calibration laboratories. Continuous process data supports both: it shows that the batch you submitted was made by a process under control, and it tells you when an instrument's behaviour has drifted between calibrations.
The record obligation, scheme by scheme
| Scheme | Record obligation (CERT/PC/F18) | What produces it automatically |
|---|---|---|
| Scheme A | General requirements | — |
| Scheme B (Silver, first recertification) | Process monitoring records; cleaning schedules and records; verification/calibration of measuring equipment | Logged process variables; calibration events; instrument status |
| Higher schemes | Everything above, sustained | A continuous record, not a folder assembled before the audit |
The obligation is continuous; most factories meet it discontinuously — which is why "calibration services in Uganda" is a search term.
The sectors where the Q-Mark is a trading condition.
Food and beverage — the largest group on the scheme, with thermal processes, cold chain and cleaning cycles all carrying record obligations · Dairy and juice processing — pasteurisation records are the classic case where a two-hourly logbook is not evidence · Grain milling and edible oils — process and storage conditions across long runs · Bottled and packaged water — treatment parameters and storage, with a compulsory standard behind them · Pharmaceuticals and cosmetics — where Scheme D via GMP or ISO certification is often the destination · Building materials and plastics — dimensional and process control on continuous plant.
Many of these sit inside Kampala Industrial and Business Park at Namanve, which now counts roughly 480 factories allocated and close to 280 operating. If you are commissioning there, the cheapest time to install process recording is before the line is running.
UNBS certification and records — common questions
Is the UNBS Q-Mark compulsory?
For products covered by compulsory standards, yes — those must be certified with the Q-Mark before being placed on the market. Standards are made compulsory where there is a safety concern for consumers or the environment. For other products the mark is voluntary but increasingly expected by buyers and retailers.
What records does UNBS certification require?
From Scheme B (Silver, first re-certification) onwards, CERT/PC/F18 requires quality monitoring records for raw materials such as certificates of analysis, process monitoring and final product inspection reports, cleaning schedules and records, and verification and/or calibration of measuring equipment. Scheme C adds market sampling and testing at least annually and a full factory evaluation every three years covering GMP, QA/QC and product.
How long is a Q-Mark permit valid?
One year under Scheme A, with re-certification to be applied for three months before expiry. Under Scheme C the permit renews annually within a three-year cycle, with a full factory evaluation every three years. Under Scheme D — for holders of valid UNBS GMP, HACCP, ISO 22000 or ISO 9001 certification — product certification renews automatically while the management system certification remains valid and surveillance samples conform.
Can continuous monitoring replace laboratory testing?
No. Product conformity is established by testing in a UNBS or UNBS-recognised laboratory, and that requirement sits at the centre of the scheme. Continuous process data does a different job: it provides the process monitoring records the scheme asks for, evidences that a tested batch came from a process under control, and flags a deviation while the cause is still identifiable.
Do you provide calibration services?
Traceable calibration is performed by accredited calibration laboratories, and that is where your certificates come from. What we provide is the surrounding engineering: instrumenting the process so monitoring records exist automatically, and holding the instrument register — make, model, serial number, parameter, range, frequency, last certificate, next due date — with alerts before anything expires.
Our records are on paper and they pass audits. Why change?
Because a two-hourly logbook is a record of twelve moments in a day, and the questions that cause trouble are almost always about the hours in between — a night shift, a specific batch, a customer complaint traced to a date. Continuous records also stop being work: nobody fills them in, nobody forgets, and preparing for surveillance becomes an export rather than a fortnight of assembling files.
What does this cost for a Ugandan plant?
Driven by how many critical process points need recording, how many can be read from equipment you already own, whether power and network reach each point, and whether you want batch context and cold chain included. We quote a written cost band after a remote assessment. Most plants start with the one process whose records an auditor asks about first — usually pasteurisation, cooking or storage temperature — and extend from there.
Make the records a query, not a fortnight of preparation.
Tell an engineer which process an auditor asks about first and how it is recorded today. You'll get a straight view of what it would take to make that record continuous.