Though not recognized by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), ISO 22000 is recognized by a certification scheme that mandates it as a part of its requirements. This certification is FSSC 22000, and GFSI recognizes this certification. Choosing certification schemes recognized by GFSI is beneficial because many retailers and manufacturers need certification to a recognized program. Most companies will be able to benefit more from the GFSI recognized certifications than the others that are not. Are you considering ISO 22000 requirements? In that case it is important that you evaluate FSSC 22000 as well, and understand whether a GFSI recognized certification fits right for your organization.
There are a few points you must ponder to ensure compliance:
- GFSI mandates the requirement of FSSC 22000 and ISO/TS 22002-1 as certification requirements.
- The requirements for food safety management system are included in ISO 22000 and they are used along with prerequisite requirements for other programs for appropriate industry sectors.
- PRP (prerequisite program) requirements for food manufacturers are present in ISO/TS 22002-1
- You can find PRPs for food packaging manufacturers in PAS 223
- Other PRP documents are to be used to expand the scope of FSC 22000
- Does your company require GFSI recognized certification? It’s better to use FSC 22000 than ISO 22000
Thus, we can deduce that two documents contain Food safety management program requirements. Let’s look at ISO 22000 in detail:
ISO 22000: This standard contains the food safety management requirements, and has specific requirements for:
- Food safety management system’s general requirements
- Documentation: document and records control
- Management responsibility: a food safety policy, management commitment, responsibility and authority food safety management system planning, verification planning etc.
- Planning and realizing safe products: prerequisite programs (PRPs), hazard analysis, preliminary steps for hazard analysis, operational prerequisite programs (oPRPs) etc.
- Verifying, improving and validating the food safety management system: control measure validation, monitor and measure control, improvement and verification of food safety management system
ISO/TS 22002-1: This has requirements for PRPs, and programs required to maintain a clean and hygienic environment which is capable to produce safe product requirement. This includes requirements for:
- Construction and layout of buildings
- Layout of premises and workspace
- Utilities – air, water, energy
- Waste disposal
- Equipment suitability, cleaning and maintenance
- Management of purchased materials
- Measures for prevention of cross contamination
- Cleaning and sanitizing
- Pest control
- Personnel hygiene and employee facilities
- Rework
- Product recall procedures
- Warehousing
- Product information and consumer awareness
- Food defense, biovigillance and bioterrorism
If FSCC 22000 process certification is to be achieved, the process must be documented and implemented to meet requirements for each process stated above. Once the system is fully designed, documented and implemented – the organization is ready for certification audit.
If you want to know more about ISO 22000 criteria for food safety management, you need to attend the conference ISO 22000 vs. GFSI (SQF, BRC, IFS, and FSSC 22000): Meeting Key Requirements on Thursday, June 23, 2016 where expert speaker Ron Vail will discuss current points from food safety management that includes ISO 22000, SQF, BRC, IFS and FSSC 22000.
