ISO 22000: 2018 consultants -Food Safety Management System

Introduction

The ISO 22000: 2018 family of standards relate to food safety management systems and are designed to help organizations of any size and at any stage in the food chain to ensure they meet the needs of customers and other stakeholders. The standards are published by ISO, the International Organization for Standardization and are available through National standards bodies.

ISO 22000: 2018 deals with the fundamentals of food safety management systems. ISO 22000:2018 deals with the requirements that organizations wishing to meet the standard have to meet. It has been designed to be compatible with other management system standards such as ISO 9001 and can be implemented within an integrated management system.

Independent confirmation that organizations meet the requirements of ISO 22000:2018 may be obtained from third party certification bodies.

ISO 22000: 2018 specifies the basic requirements for a food safety management system (FMS) that an organization must fulfil to demonstrate its ability to consistently produce food products which are safe for the end consumer.

The standard can be used for certification/registration and contractual purposes by organizations seeking recognition of their food safety management system. ISO 22000: 2018 delivers safe product, and covers all organizations in the food chain, both direct and indirect food chain.

ISO 22000 has been developed to aid harmonisation of approaches to managing food safety, not for just one part of the food chain, but for all organizations in the food chain and for those organizations supplying to the food chain, materials and services that could impact on the safety of food.

The standard combines the key elements to enable management of food safety along the food chain including: integrating the principles of HACCP and application sequence developed by Codex Alimentarius Commission; system management; control of food safety hazards through pre-requisite programmes and HACCP plans; interactive communication with suppliers, customers, regulators and consumers and, continual improvement and updating of the management system.

The standard has been developed as a food safety management system applicable to all organizations in the food chain and to suppliers of services and products to the food chain, and has been designed to enhance communication on food safety issues within the food chain to help raise standards of food safety within the food industry and thus harmonise approached to managing food safety globally.

ISO 22000: 2018 describes the requirements for operating an effective food safety management system integrating the use of the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) techniques and defined prerequisites for the safe production of food.

The ISO 22000: 2018 model is a systematic approach to developing, planning, validating, establishing, implementing, monitoring, verifying and improving the food safety management system. Implementation is split down into several distinct stages including:

Management responsibility

This section of the standard is designed to enable top management to establish and maintain commitment to the development and improvement of a food safety management system.

The need for measurable objectives is intended to support top management understanding how the food safety management system is performing and therefore what improvements and updating may be required to enable the ongoing production of safe food.

1. Food Safety Policy: Establish a policy that is appropriate to the role of the organization in the food chain ensuring it conforms to both statutory and regulatory requirements and agreed food safety requirements of customers.
2. Objectives: Establish measurable objectives relating to food safety in support of the food safety policy.
3. System definition:
   • Define the scope of the food safety management system in terms of products, activities and sites.
   • Documented food safety management system.
   • Development of internal and external communication on food safety issues with relevant interested parties.
   • Development of a food safety management system that enables all food safety hazards to be identified and controlled.
   • Establish procedures to manage potential emergency situations that can impact food safety.
4. Responsibilities: Responsibilities and authorities defined and communicated. Appointment of a food safety team leader and establish a food safety team.
5. Review the continued suitability, adequacy and effectiveness of the food safety management system at planned intervals and identify opportunities for improvement and updating of the system.
6. Resources: Provide adequate resources for the development, maintenance, updating and improvement of the food safety system.

Planning and realization of safe products

1. All relevant information needed to conduct the hazard analysis shall be collected, maintained, updated and documented.
2. The food safety team shall conduct a hazard analysis to determine which hazards need to be controlled.
3. A combination of control measures shall be put in place and managed through pre requisite programmes and/or by HACCP plans.
4. Traceability systems will need to be implemented to enable the identification of product lots/batches back through to raw materials and delivery records in the event that recall or withdrawal is warranted.
5. There shall be procedures in place to handle potentially unsafe products, withdrawals, disposal.

Validation, verification and improvement of the food safety management system

1. The food safety team shall plan and implement the processes needed to validate control measures and/or control measure combinations before their implementation to test that they will work in practice. They will also need to verify the effectiveness of the system after implementation.
2. Internal audits shall be conducted at planned intervals to determine whether the food safety system conforms to planned arrangements and is effectively implemented and updated.
3. The food safety team shall evaluate the individual results of planned verification and shall analyse the results ,which are then formally reviewed by top management.

The ISO 22000 series of standards consist of:

• ISO 22000:2018 Food safety management systems - Requirements for any organization in the food chain
• ISO 22003:2007 Food safety management systems - Requirements for bodies providing audit and certification of food safety management systems
• ISO 22004:2005 Food safety management systems -Guidance on the application of ISO 22000:2018
• ISO 22005:2007 Traceability in the feed and food chain -General principles and basic requirements for system design and implementation

Is ISO 22000 relevant to your organization?

ISO 22000 has been developed to aid harmonisation of approaches to managing food safety, not for just one part of the food chain, but for all organizations in the food chain and for those organizations supplying to the food chain, materials and services that could impact on the safety of food.

Examples of organizations who can adopt ISO 22000:2018 include:

Direct food chain:

• Farmers
• Growers
• Feed producers
• Food manufacturers and processors
• Food ingredient producers
• Food storage, distribution and transport organisations
• Caterers
• Retailers
• Food service operators such as restaurants and fast food outlets

Indirect food chain:

• Producers of chemicals to be used in the food industry
• Producers of equipment used in the food industry
• Producers of cleaning and sanitizing equipment
• Producers of packaging materials
• Service providers

Benefits

• Applies to all organizations in the global food supply chain.
• Internationally recognized standard
• Complies with the Codex HACCP principles.
• An auditable standard which provides a framework for third-party certification.
• The structure aligns with the management system clauses of ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 14001:2004.
• System approach, rather than product approach.
• Improved documentation.
• Systematic management of prerequisite programs.
• Increased due diligence.
• Dynamic communication on food safety issues with suppliers, customers, regulatory bodies and other interested parties.