ISO 22000 FOOD SAFETY MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

ISO 22000, Food safety management systems (FSMS) is an international standard developed by the International Organization for Standardization applicable to all the organizations involved throughout the food and feed chain, regardless of size or sector.

Following the same High-Level Structure (HLS) as other ISO management system standards, such as ISO 9001 (quality management), it is designed in a way that it can be integrated into an organization’s existing management processes but can also be used alone and seeks to identify the most recent issues surrounding the food safety while keeping pace with the current needs of modern food sector. All industries practicing food supply and have been certified earlier to ISO 22000:2005 are supposed to migrate to the ISO 22000:2018 soon. By combining PDCA and risk-based thinking to manage business risk with HACCP to identify, prevent and control food safety hazards, ISO 22000 helps organizations to reduce exposure to risk and improve safety.

KEY BENEFITS OF ACHIEVING ISO 22000 CERTIFICATION TO YOUR ORGANIZATION

The potential benefits of ISO 22000 are numerous, but the most significant are tangible and demonstrable improvements in food safety performance and a greater level of assurance in the area of legal compliance.

The ISO 22000 standard enables your organization to:

Build and operate a food safety management system within a well-defined and clear framework that is flexible to your business needs and expectations.
Understand what the actual risks are for the consumers and for your company.
Provide a tool for food safety performance improvement and the means to monitor and measure food safety performance effectively.
Better meet food safety legal compliance and corporate requirements.

Certification to the standard provides an effective means for your company to communicate with stakeholders and other interested parties. It is an important element in demonstrating food safety commitment under corporate governance, corporate responsibility, and financial reporting requirements.

ISO 22000 REQUIREMENTS

ISO 22000 requires that organization to build a Food Safety Management System and implemented fully throughout the facility which includes,

Effective Prerequisite Programs in place to ensure a clean sanitary environment
A Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Plan developed to identify, prevent and eliminate food safety hazards,
Established documented food safety management system processes to manage food safety throughout your organization - from management and business planning aspects to day to day communication and operations affecting food safety.
Interactive communication
Comply with applicable statutory and regulatory food safety Requirements.
To evaluate and assess the needs of customers and show that it conforms to the mutually agreed upon customer needs relating to food safety, which aims to improve customer satisfaction.
To effectively communicate food safety issues to their suppliers, customers and relevant interested parties throughout the food supply chain.
To make sure that the organization complies with its stated food safety policy and effectively shows this.
To seek certification or registration of its Food Safety Management System by an external organization, or make a self-assessment or self-declaration of conformity to ISO 22000:2018.

ISO 22000 DOCUMENTATION REQUIREMENTS

The food safety management system documentation includes the list as below:

Food safety policy and objectives
Planning and designing a management system
Maintaining records of the performance of the system.
Establishing a group of qualified individuals to make up a Food Safety Team.
Defining communication procedures to ensure effective communication with important contacts outside the company (regulatory, customers, suppliers and others) and for effective internal communication.
An emergency plan.
Holding management review meetings to evaluate the performance of the FSMS.
Providing adequate resources for the effective operation of the FSMS including appropriately trained and qualified personnel, sufficient infrastructure and appropriate work environment to ensure food safety.
Implementing Prerequisite Programs.
Following HACCP principles.
Establishing a traceability system for identification of product.
Establishing a corrective action system and control of nonconforming product.
Maintaining a documented procedure for handling withdrawal of product.
Controlling monitoring and measuring devices.
Establishing and maintaining and internal audit program.
Continually updating and improving the FSMS.

KEY CHANGES FROM ISO 22000: 2005 TO ISO 22000: 2018

ISO 22000:2018 the revised food safety standard was published on 19th June 2018, but what are the changes?

ISO 22000:2005, the international food safety standard that specifies the requirements to ensure safe production within the entire food chain, from farm to fork, has now been revised and updated and ISO 22000:2018 has been released.

The objective of this update has been to harmonize the scheme with other standards following the ISO high level structure. Anyone currently certified to ISO 22000:2005 will have 3 years to transition over to the new standard.

HIGH LEVEL STRUCTURE
ISO 22000 has implemented the High Level Structure (HLS) with 10 clauses like other ISO standards such as ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and the recently released ISO 45001. This now facilitates the integration of these management systems for those organizations that use them all.
RISK BASED APPROACH
The standard has now a strong connection with the food hygiene principles of Codex Alimentarius and a new approach to risk in two different levels, the organizational (strategic direction of the business) and the operational level.
PDCA CYCLE
Two different Plan-Do-Check-Act cycles work together in this new version, one through the entire food safety management system and the other at the operations level that simultaneously covers the HACCP principles.
OPERATION PROCESS
New definitions have been added and also critical terms such as CCPs, OPRPs and PRPs have been revised and are now clearer. Control measures are now categorized to be managed as Operational Prerequisite Programmes (OPRPs) or as Critical Control Points (CCPs). These measures are now related only to significant hazards and not managed at a Prerequisite Programmes (PRPs) level. The approach to identify each category is now different. Control measures managed as OPRPs have measurable action criteria while those managed at CCPs have only measurable critical limits that enable timely correction.

TRANSITION FROM ISO 22000:2005 TO ISO 22000:2018

The revised Food Safety Management System of ISO 22000 has been published on June 19, 2018 marking the start of 3 year transition period (until June 19 2021) for all certified companies i.e. with this release, ISO 22000:2005 will be withdrawn from consideration.

So, if you are certified to the ISO 22000:2005 standard, you will have migrate to ISO 22000:2018 until June 19, 2021 in order to maintain the validity of certification. Hence, we recommend you to start your transition preparation as soon as possible to incorporate all needed changes into your existing management system and stand out at a global level.