ISO 22000:2018 Certification

ISO 22000 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 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.

Benefits of HACCP

In recent years, a Food Safety Plan based on HACCP concepts is internationally acknowledged as a tool for enhancing food safety.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) recognized HACCP as one of the systems to ensure food safety.

Benefits of a Food Safety Plan based on HACCsP includes:-

• Traditional food management systems are reactive to food hazards. However, a Food Safety Plan applies a preventive approach to minimize food hazards.
• A Food Safety Plan acknowledges the responsibilities of the industry for food safety.
• A Food Safety Plan minimizes the limitations of traditional food management systems such as end-product testing and inspection.
• A Food Safety Plan improves consumers's confidence in the product.
• A Food Safety Plan minimize the possibility of food poisoning.
• In a long run, a Food Safety Plan lowers production cost on raw material wastage and food recall.