Inspection certificate vs inspection report: the difference

An inspection certificate is a signed statement of a result. It says the goods met a stated requirement, or weighed a stated amount, at a given place and time. The inspection report records what the surveyor saw and did to get there, and becomes the evidence when the certificate is challenged.

What an inspection certificate says

Two examples of what a certificate can decide, from GAFTA form 100 (feedingstuffs in bulk, CIF and C&F, edition effective 1 July 2026):

• Quality. By default quality is warranted at the time and place of discharge. The parties can instead name an official body whose certificate of inspection at the time of loading into the ocean vessel is final as to quality (clause 5).
• Weight. By default the cargo is weighed at discharge and the seller pays for any shortfall against the bill of lading weight. If weights are made final at loading, on an approved superintendent's certificate chosen and paid for by the seller, that deficiency clause falls away (clauses 15 and 16).

For superintendents certified to it, GAFTA's Standard for Supervision, Sampling and Check Weighing (version 7.0, 2019) sets the minimum content of an inspection report or certificate: the issuer and any subcontractor, a unique number and date of issue, the inspection dates, the holds or goods inspected, the signature or other approval of authorised personnel, a statement of conformity where applicable, and the results. Separate reports and certificates should be traceable to each other (sections 9.2 and 9.3).

Laboratory certificates are compared in certificate of analysis versus certificate of quality.

What an inspection report records

Our inspection report template has six parts: the assignment and its scope, attendance times, the condition of each hold or tank, observations during the operation, samples, and findings, followed by the attending surveyor's name and signature. Its worked example: holds 1 to 5 inspected before loading wheat; hold 3 accepted on re-inspection at 09:20 after loose rust scale was cleaned off; a rain stoppage from 18:40 to 19:25, which also goes into the statement of facts; three sealed sample sets. A certificate on the same attendance could state only that the holds were accepted. For the parts a survey report of any kind should have, see what a cargo survey report must contain.

GAFTA's Code of Practice for approved superintendents (effective 1 January 2022) keeps the scope of a hold inspection narrow. When instructed, the superintendent checks and reports whether the holds are clean, dry and free from foreign odour, loose rust, paint or other contaminating matter, and suitable in those respects only (section 6.1). Copies of certificates and reports must be kept for at least seven years, together with the principals' instructions and the weight or tally sheets (section 5.1).

Where the inspection certificate sits in a CIF trade

Under GAFTA 100 the buyer pays against shipping documents (clause 12(a)). Clause 12(b) lists them: the invoice, on-board bills of lading or negotiable delivery orders, the insurance document on CIF terms, and "other documents as called for under the contract". That last item is where an inspection certificate enters. The report does not, unless the contract adds it.

GAFTA 100 excludes the ICC trade terms and several sales conventions, the CISG among them (clause 29), and sets its own defaults: unless the parties chose the loading options above, quality and weight count at discharge and a loading certificate settles neither. How CIF allocates cost and risk is explained in CIF contracts in the agri commodity trade.

Under a letter of credit, banks examine the documents alone, take no responsibility for the accuracy of a certificate and check only that it does not conflict with the credit or the other documents. Who may issue it and how it is read is set out in letter of credit and the inspection certificate.

A buyer who wants a named inspection company, a superintendent from the GAFTA Approved Register, or a stated test method has to write that into the credit.

What a buyer actually gets from an inspection certificate

A certificate covers its stated scope and nothing more. Once quality is final at loading, the buyer cannot fall back on a discharge analysis: under GAFTA 100 the samples are then drawn at loading (clause 17), and the loading result settles the quality.

A final certificate can still fail. In Veba Oil v Petrotrade (Court of Appeal, 2001), a contract for gasoil FOB Antwerp made the determination of a mutually agreed inspector final and binding, save fraud or manifest error, and prescribed test method ASTM D1298 for density. The inspectors used D4052, the more accurate method customary at Antwerp; the samples would have passed either way. The court still held the determination not binding: the majority treated any departure from instructions as material unless it obviously could make no possible difference to either party. The departure showed on the inspectors' own report, which named the method used.

For the buyer, the report is where sampling, method and scope can be checked. GAFTA terms require an approved superintendent: a Category C member working to Rules 123 and 124 and the Code of Practice, certified to GAFTA's own standard or accredited to the latest ISO/IEC 17020 as a Type A body with an appropriate scope. See ISO 17025 versus ISO 17020.

Facts, not liability: what "without prejudice" does and does not do

Based on the working practice of our sector specialist: 25 years in the port, 20 of them as a cargo surveyor. A document marked "without prejudice" is signed for receipt only, not for its facts or their consequences. A ship often signs for receipt; the surveyor is no party and usually does not sign a protest.

Under GAFTA 100, clause 5 sets what a difference in quality entitles the buyer to, and a dispute about it goes to arbitration; see GAFTA and FOSFA arbitration. Whether appointed by the buyer, the seller or both, a superintendent must operate independently, free from commercial, financial or other pressure (GAFTA 124, rule 3.3). What a cargo surveyor does is establish the facts; who pays is decided elsewhere.

On a survey report, the words without prejudice are mostly a receipt stamp: when a protest is handed over, the ship signs it "received without prejudice, for receipt only". That shows the document arrived and admits nothing. They are not a heading to put on every report; see without prejudice and received for receipt only. The Japan P&I Club draws a similar line for masters: a surveyor's document that states only the facts of damage can be signed "without prejudice, receipt only"; the master should resist signing one that states liability. In English law the phrase is narrower: it protects genuine attempts to settle a dispute from being used in evidence, and a heading alone does not create that protection, especially where no dispute exists yet (Law Society site, 2026). Do not rely on the words to keep a factual report out of evidence. A surveyor whose report is challenged is also a matter for the surveyor's own professional indemnity cover.

FOSS

FOSS is software for inspection companies and the port, with a sector specialist at the table. Measurements are entered once, on board and offline if need be, and nine report types come from that same input. Samples are tracked and clients see live status in a portal. To see what that means for your paperwork, get in touch; we start with a free QuickScan.