ISO 22000:2015
ISO 22000 is a generic food safety management system standard. It defines a set of general food safety requirements that apply to all organizations in the food chain.While ISO 22000 talks about meeting requirements, you may comply with the standard any way you want. Organizations are free to choose their own unique methods and approaches. As long as you comply with ISO’s requirements, how you do it is entirely up to you
If your organization is part of the food chain, ISO 22000 wants you to establish a food safety management system (FSMS). It then wants you to use this system to ensure that food products do not cause adverse human health effects.The food chain consists of the entire sequence of stages and operations involved in the creation and consumption of food products. This includes every step from initial production to final consumption. More precisely, it includes the production, processing, distribution, storage, and handling of all food and food ingredients.The food chain also includes organizations that do not directly handle food. These include organizations that produce feed for animals that produce food and for animals that will be used as food. It also includes organizations that produce materials that will eventually come into contact with food or food ingredients.
ISO 22000 can be used by:
Ø Primary producers – Farms, Ranches, Fisheries, & Dairies.
Ø Processors – Fish processors, Meat processors, Poultry processors, & Feed processors
Ø Manufacturers – Soup manufacturers, Snack manufacturers, Bread manufacturers, Cereal manufacturers Beverage manufacturers, Seasoning manufacturers, Packaging manufacturers
Ø Frozen food manufacturers, Canned food manufacturers, Confectionery manufacturers, & Dietary supplement manufacturers
Ø Food service providers – Grocery stores, Restaurants, Cafeterias, Hospitals, Hotels, Resorts, Airlines Cruise ships, Nursing homes etc.
REQUIREMENTS
Ø to plan, implement, operate, maintain and update a food safety management system aimed at providing products that, according to their intended use, are safe for the consumer
Ø to demonstrate compliance with applicable statutory and regulatory food safety requirements
Ø to evaluate and assess customer requirements and demonstrate conformity with those mutually agreed customer requirements that relate to food safety, in order to enhance customer satisfaction
Ø to effectively communicate food safety issues to their suppliers, customers and relevant interested parties in the food chain,
Ø to ensure that the organization conforms to its stated food safety policy
Ø to demonstrate such conformity to relevant interested parties
FUTURE
The ISO 22000 standard will provide a valid basis for regulatory bodies in assessing compliance of systems with respect to operating conditions, processes and products with regulatory standards. In a country like India, where food safety standards are questionable, supplier certification status will gain due significance and certification to the auditable standard will become essential for preferred supplier status. This single international auditable standard will be acceptable in any part of the world and facilitate exports from India
CERTIFICATION
ISO 22000 is designed to be used for certification (registration) purposes. In other words, once you’ve established a FSMS that meets ISO’s requirements, you can ask a registrar to audit your system. If your registrar agrees that you’ve met the ISO 22000 requirements, it will issue an official certificate that states that your FSMS meets the ISO 22000 food safety requirementsWhile companies already certified to the ISO 9001: 2015 and the HACCP standard will only require to upgrade their current systems those organizations which have a single or no certification status will have to implement the standard to be competitive both locally and worldwide
