Thirteen years after the launch of its first edition, the ISO 22000 standard – ‘Food safety management systems, Requirements for any organization in the food chain’ – receives its first update. The news follows.
ISO 22000, the food safety management model
The international standard iso 22000 has been for years the reference framework for guaranteeing food safety throughout the entire agri-food supply chain. Its requirements can be voluntarily applied by all organizations in the food and feed sectors, regardless of size, processes, stakeholders, and positions in the supply chain.
It is therefore an umbrella standard, able to offer each operator – from primary agricultural production and import to final distribution, including of course processing – a model to follow for risk analysis and management. In addition to a technical language consistent with regulations, useful for sharing information among supply chain operators.
The scheme of FSSC 22000 certification – developed on this basis, integrated with the PRP’s (Pre-Requisite Programs) applicable – has therefore been recognized as equivalent to private schemes developed at the initiative of the large-scale retail trade (GDO), such as IFS and BRC among the most known.
ISO 22000:2018, the first revision
ISO 22000:2018, published last June, represents the first revision of the management system of food safety. Which is updated in light of the most recent development of the quality management base model, introduced with ISO 9001:2015.
The changes can be understood, overall, as a prompt for greater attention to the external environment. And so:
– HLS. The adoption of an ISO High Level Structure (HLS) is planned, in line with the latest updates of various ISO systems. The High Level Structure calls for important reflections on context analysis, stakeholder mapping, risk analysis understood as threats and opportunities.
The method of Risk-Based Thinking, historically applied at the operational level (through the approach of Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point, HACCP), must therefore also be adopted at the strategic level, in a broader perspective that recalls the SWOT analysis (Strength-Weakness-Opportunity-Threat),
– PDCA. Corresponding to the logic of two levels of risk, operational and strategic, is a dual cycle Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA). To the classic cycle, referring to the specific field of food safety, is added that relating to the management system as a whole, which must consider all business processes,
– Food safety policy. Greater emphasis is then given to the food safety policy, with explicit reference to continuous improvement and communication to personnel. The centrality of individuals and their awareness is indeed repeatedly emphasized by ISO 9001:2015,
– Work environment. The work environment in turn receives renewed attention and evaluation. The organization must therefore consider social and psychological factors, in addition to physical ones. Underestimating these aspects can expose the company to threats that may degenerate into deliberate food adulterations (Food Tampering).
Certified organizations according to the ISO 22000:2005 standard must update their certificate to ISO 22000:2018 within three years of its publication date, i.e. by 19.6.21.
Dario Dongo
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT – Food Times) and Égalité.
