ISO 22000:2018

The ISO 22000:2018 Food Safety Management System is the international standard that defines food safety requirements for all organisations in the food chain, from farm to fork. CMB Consultancy offers certification services through accredited certification bodies to organisations that want to obtain ISO 22000.

What Is ISO 22000?

ISO 22000 is a standard written by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) for food safety systems. Food safety concerns identifying the physical, chemical and biological hazards consumers may be exposed to at the point of consumption, and preventing these hazards from arising during production and being carried into the final product. Products produced or served without regard to food safety can have undesirable effects and consequences. Organisations in the food chain can prevent such hazards by applying ISO’s ISO 22000 Food Safety Management System standard. Today, many food products cross national borders and are consumed in different countries. The ISO 22000 standard provides guidance for creating safe food throughout the food supply chain.

The ISO 22000 standard covers four key elements:

• interactive communication,
• system management,
• prerequisite programmes, and
• HACCP principles.

One of the most important features of the standard is that it can be integrated with other management system standards.

By incorporating the HACCP system according to the Codex Alimentarius, the ISO 22000 standard sets out a system that can provide the minimum requirements for risk management. Through the HACCP study, the biological, chemical and physical hazards that may arise in the product at every process stage are identified and the necessary controls are put in place, so that the product is safeguarded. In addition to the HACCP requirements, the ISO 22000 Food Safety Management System also includes management system requirements, ensuring that an appropriate system is established. Within this system, organisations are also required to demonstrate full compliance with Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) and to implement preventive programmes.

The internationally recognised standard can be applied by all organisations in the food sector, regardless of size and capacity. In particular, the standard aims for organisations to establish a purposeful, consistent and more integrated management system in compliance with the law.

Relationship with Other Standards

Today, safe food production requires an approach that keeps everything under control: from the production of raw materials, additives, auxiliary substances and packaging materials, through supplier selection and evaluation and acceptance into the business, to the production stages, final storage and shipment. The HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) system is one of these approaches. The official bodies and national standards organisations of various countries have introduced important regulations on the HACCP system and published standards. Although the HACCP concept has a history of more than 30 years and is internationally valid, no common and comprehensive standard for the HACCP system that would be accepted worldwide was created during this time.

In international markets, the fact that almost every country had its own food safety standard, together with the difficulty and reluctance of countries to align with one another, created the need to prepare and publish an international standard. To this end, the ISO 22000 standard was prepared by TC 34, one of the working groups within the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and published as an international standard on 1 September 2005 under the name “ISO 22000:2005 Food safety management systems – Requirements for any organization in the food chain”. The current version, ISO 22000:2018, was published in June 2018 and aligned with the same high-level structure (HLS) as other management system standards.

ISO 22000 is the standard that defines the requirements to be applied when establishing a Food Safety Management System and against which certification is carried out; there are also published guidance standards, all of which are referred to as the ISO 22000 series. Although the ISO 22000 series contains many standards, ISO/TS 22004 serves as the application guide to ISO 22000. Contrary to what some people say, ISO 22000 is not a standard that simply transfers the applications of ISO 9001 to the food industry. Nevertheless, ISO 22000 is compatible with ISO 9001 and ISO 14001, is very well suited to building an integrated system and is a food safety standard that fully covers the HACCP concept.

In the food industry, every unit must create the conditions that ensure food safety while under its own control. Prerequisite programmes (PRPs) are the programmes that place the Food Safety Management System on solid foundations. Traditionally implemented within the framework of GMP, GHP, GLP, GAP and similar concepts, these conditions and practices are today regarded as prerequisites for preparing and implementing effective HACCP plans and for producing safe food. Prerequisite programmes ensure that the basic environmental and production conditions of safe food production are kept under control. Some commonly used prerequisite programmes are GMP, GHP and GAP.

Benefits of ISO 22000 for the Organisation

With an effectively implemented ISO 22000 system, the organisation:

• ensures quality, safety in terms of health and reliability in terms of the customer,
• ensures compliance with the principles of HACCP,
• gains international credibility,
• adopts a system approach instead of a product approach,
• achieves more effective and dynamic control of food safety hazards,
• eliminates the confusion of concepts between ISO 9001, HACCP, BRC and IFS,
• uses resources more effectively,
• demonstrates its commitment to producing and selling safe food,
• strengthens its brand and corporate image and improves its chances of reaching new markets and new customers,
• plans better and reduces the need for post-production verification,
• manages prerequisite programmes systematically,
• establishes dynamic communication with suppliers, customers, regulators and other interested parties,
• develops a systematic and preventive approach to identifying food safety hazards and applying control measures,
• ensures compliance with legal requirements.

Sectors That Can Be Certified to ISO 22000

• food manufacturers
• primary producers, farms and agricultural producers
• food packaging manufacturers
• animal feed manufacturers
• pet food manufacturers
• additive manufacturers
• logistics companies storing and shipping in the food sector
• service providers to the food sector
• ready-meal producers, restaurants and hotels serving food
• manufacturers of machinery and equipment for food factories
• organisations trading and selling food products