ISO 22000 – Food Safety Management System (FSMS)

ISO 22000 – Food Safety Management System (FSMS)

ISO 22000 is a Food Safety Management System that can be applied to any organization in the food chain, farm to fork. Becoming certified to ISO 22000 allows a company to show their customers that they have a food safety management system in place. This provides customer confidence in the product. This is becoming more and more important as customers demand safe food and food processors require that ingredients obtained from their suppliers to be safe.

The ISO 22000 family of International Standards addresses food safety management. The consequences of unsafe food can be serious and ISO’s food safety management standards help organizations identify and control food safety hazards. As many of today's food products repeatedly cross national boundaries, International Standards are needed to ensure the safety of the global food supply chain.

ISO 22000:2018 sets out the requirements for a food safety management system and can be certified to. It maps out what an organization needs to do to demonstrate its ability to control food safety hazards in order to ensure that food is safe. It can be used by any organization regardless of its size or position in the food chain.

Difference between HACCP and ISO 22000

Besides the fact that HACCP is a food safety system, and ISO 22000 is a food safety management system standard, differences between these two include the following:

·         ISO 22000 allows the development of a food safety management system by external experts for any company, and this includes implementation and verification of all or part of activities involved in the system.

·         ISO 22000 also refers to good practices in sectors and general hygiene rules published by Codex Alimentarius.

·         Besides the internal communication, external communication is also a condition for establishing, implementing and updating the FSMS according to ISO 22000.

·         ISO 22000 demands risk analysis to evaluate each food safety hazards identified.

·         ISO 22000 demands documentation of PRPs.

·         HACCP uses the traditional concept of dividing control measures into two groups: prerequisites and measures applied at critical control points (CCPs). In the case of ISO 22000, these concepts are reorganized in a logical order by adding a group of control measures named operational prerequisite programs (oPRPs).

·         ISO 22000 demands monitoring system and planning of corrective actions for operational PRPs, as for CCPs.

·         ISO 22000 demands analysis and improvement according to the outcome of monitoring of oPRPs and HACCP plan.

·         ISO 22000 also requires the review and identification of specifications, formulation and origin for input and end-products.

·         ISO 22000 separates and clarifies verification activities and validation activities.

·         Allergen control is a required prerequisite program in ISO 22000; however it is not mentioned in HACCP.

·         ISO 22000, new terms have been developed, such as “potentially unsafe product” and the term “withdrawal” for product recall and product recollection activities.

·         ISO 22000 requires continual improvement and updating of the management system.

Is there any difference between “HACCP” and “the HACCP system”?

For people that are not involved in the food industry, HACCP and the HACCP system may sound like the same thing, but in reality they differ.

HACCP is an industry-specific hazard assessment tool which focuses on preventing hazards rather than inspecting end-products. This tool can be applied throughout the food chain from primary production to final consumption.

This is different from the HACCP system which is a universally recognized Food Safety System. The system enables the identification and control of hazards that may occur in food production process. It focuses on the prevention of potential hazards by strictly monitoring and controlling each critical control point of the food production process. Even though the system initially consisted of three principles, over the years it has been revised and many changes have been made in order to simplify and make its implementation easier. The initial concept of HACCP has never changed.

What does ISO 22000 require?

ISO 22000 requires that you build a Food Safety Management System. This means that you will have a documented system in place and fully implemented throughout your facility that 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.

·         The ISO 22000 standard contains the specific requirements to be addressed by the Food Safety Management System. The standard requires food safety management system processes including:

·         Having an overall Food Safety Policy for your organization, developed by top management.

·         Setting objectives that will drive your companies efforts to comply with this policy.

·         Planning and designing a management system and documenting the 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.

·         Having 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.

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