ISO 22000 - Food safety management

What is ISO 22000?

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.

It is applicable to all organizations, regardless of size, which are involved in any aspect of the food chain and want to implement systems that consistently provide safe products.

Why is ISO 22000 important to your organisation?

ISO 22000 is recognised throughout the global food chain and certification is a way to become a supplier of choice. ISO 22000 certification publicly demonstrates your commitment to food safety. It is based on state-of-the-art best practices and is designed to:

  • build trust with stakeholders
  • identify, manage and mitigate food safety risks
  • reduce and eliminate product recalls and litigation
  • protect your brand.

ISO 22000 AND HACCP

ISO 22000 uses HACCP. HACCP stands for Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point. It was developed by the Codex Alimentarius Commission. HACCP is a methodology and a management system. It is used to identify, prevent, and control food safety hazards. HACCP management systems apply the following methodology:

  • Conduct a food safety hazard analysis.
  • Identify your critical control points (CCPs).
  • Establish critical limits for each critical control point.
  • Develop procedures to monitor critical control points.
  • Design corrective actions to handle critical limit violations.
  • Create a food safety record keeping system.
  • Validate and verify your system.

Importance Of ISO 22000

  • Embed and improve the internal processes needed to provide consistently safe food
  • Provide confidence to the organization and the management team that the organization’s practices and procedures are in place and that they are effective and robust
  • Provide confidence to customers and other stakeholders (through the ISO 22000 certification process) that the organization has the ability to control food safety hazards and provide safe products
  • Provide a means of continual improvement that ensures that the food safety management system is reviewed and updated so that all activities related to food safety are continually optimized and effective
  • Ensure adequate control at all stages of the food supply chain to prevent the introduction of food safety hazards