ISO 22000

ISO 22000 describes requirements for a food

safety management system and sets out what
requirements an organization must meet to
demonstrate it can control food safety hazards.
Unsafe food can have severe health consequences, so it's crucial for
organizations in the food supply chain to take steps to ensure their
processes and products are safe. Today, many food products cross
national borders, highlighting the need for a global standard for food safety
management. ISO 22000 meets this need by providing guidelines
organizations can follow to help identify and control hazards related to food
safety.

What Is ISO 22000?

ISO 22000:2018, which recently got revised, is a food safety standard for
businesses in the global food chain. The International Organization for
Standardization (ISO) developed the standard ISO 22000:2018, Food
safety management systems – Requirements for any organization in the
food chain.

ISO 22000 describes requirements for a food safety management system

and sets out what requirements an organization must meet to demonstrate
 it can control food safety hazards. ISO 22000 industries can get certified to
the standard.

ISO 22000 covers organizations across the whole food chain, from the farm
to the table. It is designed to ensure fair competition and provide for
communication within and between organizations along the food chain.

The standard incorporates and complements the main elements of ISO

9001, the standard for quality management systems, as well as hazard
analysis and critical control points (HACCP), a preventive approach to food
safety.

The standard provides a framework for organizations to develop,

implement, monitor and continually improve a food safety management
system, or FSMS, within the context of their overall business risks. To
comply with the standard, businesses must meet all applicable food safety-
related statutory and regulatory requirements.

Organizations that want to create an FSMS that is more focused, coherent

and integrated than what the law requires can benefit from ISO 22000. It
helps organizations with aspects of their operations such as food safety,
hazard controls, their supply chain, HACCP, their business strategy and
food traceability.

What Is a Food Safety Management System?

Although the primary concern regarding food safety is the presence of food
safety hazards at the point of consumption, these hazards can occur at any
point along the food chain. Because of this, it's crucial to have adequate
controls in place throughout the food chain, and all the organizations
involved must collaborate to ensure safety.

The primary elements of an FSMS, as described in ISO 22000, are:

• Interactive communication across the organization

• System management that includes documentation
• Prerequisite programs, which ensure a clean, sanitary environment
• HACCPprinciples, which help identify, prevent and remove food safety
hazards

The standard also covers other principles, which are part of all ISO
management system standards. These principles are:

• Customer focus
• Leadership
• Engagement of people
• Process approach
• Improvement
• Evidence-based decision-making
• Relationship management

What Does ISO 22000 Require?

An FSMS, as described in ISO 22000, establishes a process for managing

food safety that applies across the entire organization. Some of the
processes an organization may consider about ISO 22000 include:

• An overall food safety policy

• Targets that will drive the company's efforts to comply with its policy
• Planning, designing and documenting a management system
• Creating a food safety team of qualified individuals and assigning
responsibilities
• Establishing communication procedures for internal communication and
communication with parties outside the company, such as customers,
suppliers and regulatory bodies
• An emergency plan
• A plan for regularly evaluating the performance of the FSMS
• A strategy for providing sufficient resources to enable the operation of the
FSMS, including trained and qualified personnel, infrastructure and an
appropriate work environment
• A plan for following principles of HACCP
• A system to enhance the traceability and identification of products
• A system for controlling nonconformities in products
• A documented procedure for the withdrawal of products
• An internal audit program
• A plan for continually improving the FSMS
• Prerequisite programs

Prerequisite Requirements
When seeking compliance with ISO 22000, organizations must establish
prerequisite programs that aim to reduce the likelihood of contamination.
While ISO identifies certain areas and programs organizations must
consider, it doesn't define the specific requirements of each program.
Instead, each organization will develop its own programs based on its
needs.

ISO does provide some guidance on how to develop these prerequisite

programs through each one of the technical specification, such as ISO/TS
22002-1, Prerequisite programs on food safety — Part 1: food
manufacturing. This document replaces PAS 220. This ISO specification is
tailored more toward use with ISO 22000 and provides more detail than
PAS 220.

It's essential to know ISO/TS 22002-1 applies only to food manufacturers,

not all organizations across the entirety of the food chain.Some of the
 areas ISO 22000 identifies for organizations to consider when developing
their prerequisite programs include:

• Pest control
• Food defense, biovigilance and bioterrorism
• The construction and layout of buildings
• Prevention of cross-contamination
• Equipment suitability, cleaning and maintenance
• Employee facilities and personal hygiene
• Management of purchased material
• The layout of the premises and workspace
• Cleaning and sanitizing procedures
• Product information
• Utilities, including energy, water and air
• Warehousing
• Waste disposal
• Procedures for product recall

Currently, there are other sector specific technical specifications available

for catering companies, the retail sector, business based on transport and
storage services, manufacturers of animal feed and also producers of food
packaging products.

What Are the Benefits of ISO 22000

Certification?
ISO 22000 helps organizations minimize food risks and improve
performance as it relates to food safety. It does so by providing a
framework they can use to develop an FSMS, a systematic approach to
addressing food safety issues. Compliance with ISO 22000 provides
benefits such as:

• Improved health and safety — Minimizing food risks leads to better health
and safety outcomes for customers, other users, employees and others
who may come into contact with food.
• Improved customer satisfaction — Having an FSMS helps you reliably
deliver products that meet customer expectations.
• Help meeting regulatory requirements — Compliance with regulatory
requirements is required to achieve certification to ISO 22000. Having an
FSMS in place can help companies meet these requirements and
understand how they impact the organization and its customers.
• Help meeting other standards and guidelines — ISO 22000 links to
various other international standards and guidelines and can help
organizations meet the requirements of these systems as well.
• Enhanced transparency — ISO 22000 helps organizations improve the
traceability of their products and achieve greater transparency regarding
operations.
• Improved response to risks — Having an FSMS in place can help
organizations respond more quickly and efficiently to issues that may
compromise food safety, helping them stop potential contamination before
it occurs.
• Reduced investigation time — If contamination does occur, an FSMS
helps organizations reduce the time it takes to investigate any food safety
breaches, solving the problem faster.

The standard itself also offers several advantages over other systems:

• Consistent structure — The structure of ISO 22000 is similar to that of

other international standards. It is designed to integrate seamlessly with
other management systems from ISO, such as ISO 9001, ISO 45001 and
ISO 14001.
• Global recognition — ISO 22000 is a well-known, internationally
recognized standard. Certification to it improves an organization's
reputability with customers, suppliers, investors, regulatory groups and
other parties worldwide.
• Increased business opportunities — Certification to an international
standard such as ISO 22000 opens doors for a business. Some
organizations require certification before they will supply or otherwise work
with a company.