ISO 22000 is an international standard dealing with the safety and quality of food products.
As chains of food distribution have increasingly been stretched around the globe, urgency arises for the creation of some standards for food safety to ensure that the quality control in the food industry and standards for food processing provide a safe supply of food all over the world. ISO is an International organization for Standardization, established in 1947. Its head office is located in Switzerland and the ISO members come from more than 120 national standard bodies.
The ISO 22000 deals with food safety, which is linked with the existence of food borne hazards in food at the time of consumption. Since food safety hazards are likely to occur during any stage of the food chain, it is necessary to hold control in place. The ISO 22000 specifies the obligations for food safety including system management, interactive communication, HACCP principles and pre-requisite programmes.
The 7 principles of HACCP include conduction of hazard analysis, determination of critical control-points, occurrence of critical limits, monitoring of system establishment and critical control-points, monitoring non-controlled points and correcting them, occurrence of control procedures for the audit of system competence and implementation of these principles and maintenance of documents including records and procedures.
Many scientists critically review the above elements. Communication between the organizations both downstream and upstream at the length of the food chain is necessary to make sure that all the relevant food safety hazards have been identified and controlled adequately at every step of the food chain. Communication with the customers and suppliers about the control measures and the identified hazards is also necessary, as it will be helpful in clarifying the requirements of the customers and the suppliers.
Distinguishing the role of the organization and its position in the food chain to make sure effective communication during the chain is done for delivering safe food products to the final customers.
The most efficient food safety systems are operated, established and updated in the framework of structured management system and included in the management activities of the organization as a whole, thus providing maximum benefits to the organization and also to the interested parties. The ISO 22000 is aligned with the ISO 9001 for enhancing the compatibility of both the standards.
The industry of food and beverages is the largest industry of the world and in quest for increased profits and market share, and the companies may sacrifice on the safety and quality of the food that they produce.
Consumers may rely upon the food products manufactured by ISO 22000 certified organizations to ensure that the food product is manufactured without any compromise in terms of safety and quality. The organizations that can be certified by the standard include farmers, harvesters, bait producers, food producers, food components producers, food sellers, food services, ready food companies and organizations which deal in cleaning, storage, sanitizing and distribution of food products.
Other indirect organizations that can be certified include agents dealing with sanitation and cleaning of food, organizations that provide equipments and package materials for food and organizations that produce other elements that come in contact with the food.
Analysis is done on every aspect of food starting from the provision of raw materials to preparation, production, operation, package, transportation and storage of food products. Critical control points are also determined in the desired places thus preventing a problem before it happens to take place.
Halil Agaoglu is author of this article on ISO 9001:2000. Find more information about ISO 22000 here.