ISO 22000
Food safety is making headlines more and more frequently. What can you do to keep your company from negative headlines? Ensuring food safety is increasingly important in our global market. Can the Food Safety Management System, ISO 22000, help you?
Overview: ISO 22000 Certification
The International Organization of Standardization (ISO) created the very successful quality management system standard ISO 9001, used worldwide by over 700 thousand companies. So as the need for an international standard for the food industry became apparent, ISO started a working group to develop a Food Safety Management System.
The goal was to be able to encourage harmonization of the many national and private standards in existence and add the management systems approach of ISO 9001. Starting with many of the same concepts as the Quality Management Standard, changing the focus to food safety management, and incorporating PRP and HACCP principles led to what is now ISO 22000. This standard can be applied to any company in the food chain, from field to store.
How does the standard compare with other food safety standards?
You can think of ISO 22000 as a standard that takes the approach of ISO 9001 as a management system, incorporates the hygiene measures of Prerequisite programs, and adds HACCP principles and criteria. You now have the best of the management system approach added to the well established PRP and HACCP programs.
Build your food safety management system based on ISO 22000 and you will benefit from the best of both worlds- a management system approach combined with the best food safety practices. As stated earlier, there are many existing food safety standards, but they vary widely in content, levels, and evaluation. To sell in a global food market, an internationally consistent standard is a benefit to everyone. We can help you prepare for Certification
ISO 22000 is not a Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) benchmarked standard. This means that if your customer base or market is looking for a GFSI Recognized standard you should look at FSSC 22000, which is the most similar to ISO 22000 or one of the other GFSI recognized certification schemes.