Food Safety Management | Quality Management Systems
ISO 22000 Food Safety Certification is a Food Safety and Quality Assurance Management System which was published in June of 2018. The new standard is in line with the revised standards of ISO 9001:2015 with a 10-element, high-level structure and risk-based thinking for food management as an essential feature. This makes it easier to have an integrated system for a facility to have ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 22000:2018 certifications together.
ISO 22000 certification and prerequisite programs (PRPs) covered under ISO/TS 22002 will make the facility qualify for FSSC 22000:2018, a trusted brand assurance platform for the consumer goods industry. Certification to FSSC (Food Safety System Certification) is a tool to comply with all FSMA (Food Safety Modernization Act) regulations and satisfy all FSIS inspections (by the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service agency).
The rationale for implementing FSSC 22000:2018 is in the background that, “each year, roughly 48 million people in the United States get sick, 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die of food-borne diseases,” (Source: https://oig.hhs.gov/oei/reports/oei-02-14-00420.pdf).
The inspiration for this realization is that food production targets the human/animal population, and, unquestionably, many people would prefer food that is certified to be produced at the highest level of quality and safety.
This standard is applicable to all facilities who form a part in the entire food chain of food production. In other words, ISO 22000 certification is applicable to all facilities which produce from farms, process for consumption by humans or animals, provide packaging materials with or without contact with food, and/or transport or store food items.
Food safety is related to the presence of food-borne hazards in food at the point of consumption (intake by the consumer). As the introduction of food safety hazards can occur at any stage of the food chain, adequate control throughout the food chain is essential. Thus, food safety is ensured through the combined efforts of all the parties participating in the food chain.
Organizations within the food chain range from feed producers and primary producers through food manufacturers, transport and storage operators and subcontractors, to retail and food service outlets (together with interrelated organizations such as producers of equipment, packaging material, cleaning agents, additives and ingredients). Service providers are also included in the food chain.
- Quality Management consultants can prepare your facilities to have a Food Safety Management System (QMS) and associated documents/records to show as evidence of having implemented the system for ISO 22000 certification by a third-party.
- First-Party Audit: Audits performed by a team within the facility are called First-Party Audits.
- Second-Party Audit: Audits performed by organizations on their suppliers are called Second-Party Audits.
- Third-Party Audit: Audits performed by Certification Bodies are known as Third-Party audits.
- Third-party audits are conducted by Certifying Bodies accredited by ISO and who are signatories to IAF (The International Accreditation Forum) and MLA (Meat & Livestock Australia).
- Each facility needs to prepare documentation to show as evidence of having a streamlined process that ensures safety in the manufacture and supply of safe food for ISO 22000 certification (example: the documentation required to show evidence of prevention of contamination during an ISO 22000 Audit).
- Third-party ISO 22000 audits seek differentiation between safe food for human or animal consumption in documentation.
- It is necessary to build a robust Food Safety Management System which compels task performers to have defined roles, responsibilities, and controls to ensure quality for safe food. It is understandable that no facility or company likes to produce an unsafe product or service, but without an established Food Safety Management System, it is difficult to prevent wastages and therefore contribute to the hygiene of the end user.
- In addition to having a system in place, the system must also be audited periodically to ensure that designed systems are being followed and controls are being exercised.
- All facilities engaged in production of products or offering services will need a Quality Management System (QMS).
- A comprehensive, ISO 22000 certified QMS can assure customers and statutory and regulatory government agencies that the facility has a robust system and can produce safe food for human or animal consumption and provide answers to all questions from certifying auditors.
- ISO 22000 certification is a system under an international standard dedicated to build Quality Management Systems for safe food and pave the way for continual improvement in any facility.
- A good ISO 22000 consulting and auditing firm can provide detailed explanation on the intent of the standard, build a Quality Management System, provide the techniques for implementing the system, provide internal quality auditing services to help the facility verify the accuracy and adequacy of the implementation, find deficiencies, make correction, and take corrective actions.
- The implementation is certified by an accredited third-party agency, thus completing the loop. There will be an annual ISO 22000 Surveillance Audit to ensure implementation of certified QMS for food safety.
- Companies with ISO 22000 certification will have very few or no audits from the FDA (Food & Drug Administration).
- ISO 22000 consulting firms help facilities avoid recall of food products.
- The ISO 22000 certification is renewable every three years.
The benefits of implementing an ISO 22000 Food Safety Management System are diverse and will be seen in all departments of your company. The following are some of the benefits that you should take into consideration:
- ISO 22000 certification provides a proactive and preventive approach towards food security and safety which significantly reduces the probability of any contamination occurring.
- Restructuring and reorganization for ISO 22000 certification allows your organization to identify areas of need in production systems and further incorporate customer views.
- Cut costs for end-product testing expenses by assuring that the process of production is as good as possible.
- The ISO 22000 certification is legitimate evidence that food produced by your company is safe for human consumption hence promoting customer satisfaction and compliant with FSMA (Food Safety Modernization Act) regulations.
- ISO 22000 certification provides a globally certified framework that will help bring your company to the elite level of food processing plants and producers.
- QSE has over 27 Years in the field of consulting, auditing, and training for any ISO standard, Sector-Specific standard, AISC standard, or Food Safety standards such as ISO 22000.
- QSE has helped over 700 facilities to earn their ISO and other certifications.
- All QSE customers passed ISO certification audits, and over 98% of them passed with zero or minimal nonconformities the first time around. QSE has a 100 % success rate in obtaining certifications for its customers!
- Unlike our competitors, QSE has a unique, comprehensive, evidence-based, and simplified, single-level documentation system which is easy to implement and provides evidence of QMS implementation to earn ISO 22000 certification.
- Templates designed by QSE are tried and tested. Facilities using the documentation developed by QSE do not have to struggle for evidence in ISO 22000 audits.
- Evidence is built into the system. The facility needs to only follow the given formats and tables to sail through an ISO 22000 certification audit with zero or minimal nonconformities.
- QSE engages competent auditors to conduct internal ISO 22000 audits or suppler audits.
- At the end of an Internal audit QSE submits a detailed report which assists the facilities in building corrective actions and preventive actions to avoid possible nonconformities and helps to undertake preventive actions to avoid occurrence of any nonconformity during final ISO 22000 Audit.
- Several of our competitors engage in audits through ISO 22000 audit checklists. QSE does not perform audits by ISO 22000 audit checklist, which is not an evidence gathering ISO 22000 audit. QSE performs ISO 22000 food safety audits by thorough ISO 22000 audit techniques covering all requirements of ISO 20000 standards clause by clause.
- President and CEO of QSE, Baskar Kotte, is an original and active member of ISO/US TAG/TC 176, the Technical Committee that originally developed the ISO 9000 family of standards, ISO/US TAG/TC 207 which developed the ISO 14000 family of standards, ISO/US TAG/TC 301 (TC 242) which developed ISO 50001 and ISO 19011 (the Guidelines for Auditing Management Systems). Mr. Kotte also participated and provided input to the development of the current ISO 9001:2015, ISO 14001:2015, ISO 50001:2018 family of standards, and ISO 19011:2018 revised standards.
