General Society of Surveillance (SGS) certification is a Swiss multinational company headquartered in Geneva, which provides inspection, verification, testing and certification services. Its 99,600 employees operate a network of 2,600 offices and laboratories worldwide. It ranked on Forbes Global 2000 in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2020 and 2021.

The core services offered by SGS include the inspection and verification of the quantity, weight and quality of traded goods; the testing of product quality and performance against various health, safety and regulatory standards; and the ascertainment of the conformance of products, systems or services with the requirements of standards set by governments, standardization bodies or SGS customers.

International traders in London—including those from France, Germany, the Netherlands, the Baltic, Hungary, the Mediterranean and the United States—founded the London Corn Trade Association in 1878 in order to standardize shipping documents for exporting nations and to clarify procedures and disputes relating to the quality of imported grain.

In the same year, SGS was founded in Rouen, France, by Henri Goldstuck, a young Latvian immigrant who, having seen the opportunities at one of the country’s largest ports, began to inspect French grain shipments.[8] With the aid of Captain Maxwell Shafftington, he borrowed money from an Austrian friend to start inspecting the shipments arriving in Rouen as, during transit, losses showed in the volume of grain as a result of shrinkage and theft. The service inspected and verified the quantity and quality of the grain on arrival with the importer.