The NSI Inspection Centre is the officially appointed inspection body for fish, fishery products and canned fish. The Division administers Compulsory Specifications (also known as Compulsory Technical Regulations) under the Standard Act 18. of 2005, on behalf of the Ministry of Industrialisation, Trade and SME Development (MITSMED).

The Inspection Centre provides regulatory services to the fishing and canned meat industries to ensure public food safety and to facilitate trade in those commodities. It conducts inspection services to the Namibian fishing and canned meat industries for compliance of vessels and establishments, and inspection of consignments of products to Compulsory Technical Regulations. The Inspection Centre offices are based at Walvis Bay and Lüderitz as well as two satellite offices based at the canning factories of Meatco (Windhoek) and Etosha Fisheries (Walvis Bay).

Integrity, impartiality and confidentiality form cornerstones of the inspection process and is reinforced by the use of competent technical personnel. International recognition of inspection services has been upheld since 2008 by third party accreditation body recognition to the ISO/IEC 17020 Quality Management System (QMS) for Inspection Bodies. The Inspection centre is regarded as a Type A Inspection Body, since it provides third party inspections and issue certificates of conformity to complying consignments.

Specific Services the Inspection Centre provides include:

• Inspection (including in-depth inspection based on HACCP principles) and surveillance services of processing establishments, vessels and cold stores;
• Sampling and inspection of raw materials and final products (mainly fishery products and canned meat);
• Issuing of Certificates of Conformity against regulatory requirements for import and export consignments;
• Provision of ttechnical advice on the administration and interpretation of food standards, as well as national and international food legislation
• Maintenance of a list of approved establishments; (land-based factories, cold storage, factory and freezer vessels), and the list of approved ice, chilled seawater (CSW) and refrigerated seawater (RSW) vessels, supplying raw materials to land-based establishments. Approvals are supported through conducting regular surveillance activities.