Why ISO 22000?

Throughout the world, food safety is the most important issue in the food supply chain. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has developed a standard for the certification of food safety management systems.

This is an opportunity to achieve international harmonisation in the field of food safety standards and it will also provide a tool to implement HACCP throughout the food supply chain because the standard is suitable for all stakeholders in the chain.

Who is involved?

There is considerable international interest in this standard. The working group that has developed ISO 22000 has representatives from 14 countries representing all continents. The working group also has representatives from organisations such as the Codex Alimentarius, the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) and the Confederation of the Food and Drink Industry of the European Union (CIAA).

The content of ISO 22000

The standard has three parts:

• requirements for good manufacturing practices or pre-requisite programmes
• requirements for HACCP according to the HACCP principles of the Codex Alimentarius.
• requirements for a management system

The requirements for good manufacturing practices are not listed in the standard but the standard makes references to existing practices. The format of the standard is the same as ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 and so makes it suitable to develop an integrated risk-based management system.

ISO 22000 can be used as a tool to improve an organisation's food safety system. The requirements are developed by HACCP experts from all over the world and the standard has international recognition. Companies that are already certified against a food safety standard will be able to update their system with the additional requirements for ISO 22000 and will have the opportunity to be certified against this standard. The amount of effort this takes will depend on the level of compliance of the standard compared to ISO 22000. For companies with HACCP certified systems the amount of work will be limited, but for those with BRC or IFS there will be a larger amount of work.