ISO 22000 & HACCP Certification

What is ISO 22000 Certification?

ISO 22000 Certifications (Food Safety Management System ) – food safety is must and if that goes wrong you might get liquidated but stop that from happening with ISO 22000 

• ISO 22000 certification ensures effective processes that would deliver quality product and services consistently in order to consistently meet the expectations of customers and other stakeholders.
• Food safety is a global concern and countries all over the world have framed stringent regulations to ensure that the food for consumption is safe and of highest quality. ISO 22000 certification is a proof of an organization’s commitment in delivering safe food that does not cause any injury or illness.
• Any organization of any scale- big or small, who are involved at any stage of the food chain, i.e., production, distribution or even retail can apply for ISO 22000 certification.

What are the Principles of ISO 22000 Certifications?

• Customer focus –aiming to improve for the betterment of the interested parties and customer, this will help one sustain customer, increase customer base, makes sure to communicate their needs and expectation by monitoring throughout the organization.
• Leadership – to achieve quality objectives leaders need to establish unity of purpose which is by aligning its strategy, policies, procedure and resource this will lead to better coordination of the organization’s processes one needs to establish a culture of trust and integrity, provide people with the required resource, training, authority to act with accountability.
• Engagement of people –for efficiency involve people of all levels, this can be done by communicating with the employees their needs in the organization, sharing knowledge, and experience, recognizing people’s contribution, learning, and improvement.
• Process approach –when activities are understood and then executed then the efficiency of the delivered output will increase, by understanding organizations’ capabilities and determining resource constraints prior to action.
• Improvement-improvement is important for an organization to maintain the current level of performance and to even keep on developing, this can be done by giving proper training and letting them understand that how does a work happens with that track, review and audit planning, implementation, recognize and acknowledgment, which will result into anticipation of internal and external risks and opportunity, improved process performance.
• Evidence-based decision making –learn from mistakes. it is simply that decisions should be driven from evaluation of data, this will help one take better efficient solutions adding more, intuitions should never be neglected.
• Relationship management –manage relations with relevant interested parties such as providers, one can achieve by keeping a well-managed supply chain that provides a stable flow of products and services, determining interested party’s relationship that needs to manage,

PDCA Cycle

• Plan –to think that what do we need to achieve in our organization
• Do –to execute a planned action which will help us achieve the required objective
• Check –monitor against the standards) (policies, objectives, requirements)
• Action –finally implementing what has been rechecked.

ISO 22000 Benefits

ISO 22000 Certification can help organizations in the following ways :-

• Improved communication within the organization and better management of the processes.
• It’s a guarantee of the quality, safety, and reliability of food products.
• It reduces the costs that might have otherwise been incurred from recalls of the unfit products.
• A significant boost to your image in the market and enhanced brand loyalty.
• Higher confidence in disclosures.
• Prevention of food-borne diseases.
• Boost the employees’ morale.
• Effective utilization of resources.
• Timely and efficient food safety hazard control.
• Systematic management of prerequisite programmers.
• Effective decision-making.

ISO 22000 Requirements

The Annex SL of High-Level Structure of ISO 22000 standard contains some compulsory requirements for effective implementation of the Food Safety Management System (FSMS) in an organization. These are enlisted from sections 4 to 10 of the Annex SL document. However, the first three sections mostly introduce the standard and composition of scope, normative references, and terms and definitions.  The specific requirements for FSMS are mentioned in the later seven sections.

• Section 4: Context of the organization-It includes all those factors that might affect your organization. They may be external or internal and can affect the interested parties such as customers, clients, contractors, stakeholders, etc.

• Section 5: Leadership –This section deals with the responsibilities of top management in ensuring an effective FSMS in the organization. It provides a method of assigning roles transparently to the staff and ensuring smooth communication throughout.

• Section 6: Planning –This section deals with the timely identification of risks and preparing action plans to deal with them.
• Section 7: Support –In his section, the organization is made aware of the tools, technologies, and resources that are required for the implementation of FSMS.

• Section 8: Operation –This section provides for the assessment of the existing procedures and compliance with the legal obligations. The key requirement is to perform risk assessments regularly.

• Section 9: Performance evaluation –The performance of your FSMS can be regularly evaluated through monitoring and measurement. This ensures the ability of your management system in meeting the objectives determined by your organization.

• Section 10: Improvement –This section ensures that your organization is able to meet the changing market demands by continually improving the management system.

If you are business-based, this section will guide you on obtaining ISO 22000 certifications in your organization. Once you have developed your FSMS, it becomes important for you to operate it for some time and document the process before deciding to invite a ISO certification body for ISO 22000 certification. You will need to fill up an application form that contains details about your organization. The ISO Certification body of your choice will review your application form and provide you with a quotation, after which you may plan your certification audit.

There are some mandatory processes to obtain ISO 22000 certification. After you have taken care of the documentation, you must follow the below-given steps for obtaining the certification:

the certification process goes further. Click here to view the next steps to the ISO certification process

Gap Analysis

Understand the prerequisites of ISO standards by analyzing each clause thoroughly. Analyze your system for any shortcomings. You may take help from any ISO consultant to get you through this stage.

Implementation

Prepare the required documents, records, and policies Perform internal audits and management review to understand gaps and practical realties Perform corrective actions to confirm conformities

Certification

Fill the application form provided by the certification body Invite the auditors from certification body for audit and certification Get your management system ISO certified.

• Stage One (documentation review) – At this stage, the auditors from the certification body verifies that your documentation meets the requirements of ISO 22000.

• Stage Two (main audit) –In this stage, the realities of your processes are matched with your statements in the documentation for their compliance to the requirements of ISO 22000 standard.

ISO 22000 Frequently Asked Questions about Food Safety Management System (FSMS)

Question : How can I get an ISO 22000 certificate?

Answer : Achieving ISO 22000 Certification is not a big deal in today’s upgraded systems. The basic steps to become ISO 22000 Certified are listed below: Firstly, you need to prepare all the relevant information about your company in a systematized way (It is always best and safe to hire a legal consultant.) Secondly, you need to document all the relevant information about your business. Thirdly, you have to implement all the documented information in your organization. Fourthly, get ready for the internal audits which are performed first during the certification process and then periodically after. Lastly, if the certifying body approves your management system then you will be awarded the required ISO standard.

Question : How much does it cost for ISO 22000 certification?

Answer : The cost of ISO 22000 certification varies from one organization to another. Basically, when you approach an internationally accredited certifying body for ISO Certification and they approve your management systems and all your processes, they will then quote an amount for the certificate. Moreover, the cost for achieving ISO certification depends mostly on your organization, such as the no. of employees in your organization, No. of branches your organization has, and many more.

Question : How long is an ISO 22000 certificate valid for?

Answer : Basically, an ISO Certificate is valid for three years. And during this time period of three years, a surveillance audit is conducted on an annual basis to ensure that ISO quality standards are being maintained by the organization.

Question : How do I maintain ISO 22000 certification?

Answer : Just because you received an ISO 22000 certification, your task is not complete. For proper functioning of the management system, you need to maintain the ISO 22000 certification. For that, your company has to continually undergo an annual surveillance audit for the period of three years. After completion of the validity period, you need to get recertified.

Question : Is ISO 22000 certification right for me? / Why become 22000 certified?

Answer : ISO 22000 Certification is important for all the organizations that are directly or indirectly involved in the food chain business because it ensures customers satisfaction by delivering quality and safe food products which in return will open new doors for your organization.

Question : How can I apply for ISO 22000 for my company for quality?

Answer : First of all, you need to choose an internationally accredited certification body meeting all the requirements of ISO Accreditation such as OM Dhruv Management Systems. Then an application shall be created, where all the rights and obligations will be included and will be confidential between both the applicants and the registrar. After that, the ISO auditor will review the relevant documentation related to various procedures followed in your organization. The auditors will identify gaps, and if there are any gaps you have to prepare an action plan in order to remove these gaps. Then, there will be initial certification audits which will be followed by: Stage I – where the auditors will check the changes made in your organization according to requirements. Stage II – where the auditor will do their final audit for the certification. As the auditors will approve all your processes then they will make a report and send it to the registrar. They will then grant you the ISO 22000 certification.

Question : What is the aim of ISO 22000 Certification?

Answer : ISO 22000 Certification is a globally recognized standard for Food Safety Management Systems (FSMS) which basically aims to identify and control food safety hazards ensuring food safety to the consumers.

Question : What is the latest version of ISO 22000 Certification?

Answer : ISO 22000:2018 Certification is the latest version of ISO 22000 standards which are available to all the organizations that are directly or indirectly involved in the food supply chain and ensure food safety to all the consumers.

Question :For whom ISO 22000 is beneficial?

Answer : Any organization which is a part of the food supply chain, starting from farm, up until the fork, can benefit from ISO 22000 certification. This includes growers, packagers, transporters, distributors, retailers, storage owners, or even restaurateurs.

Question : What is the importance of the food safety management system (FSMS)?

Answer : It is very important for those organizations that are part of the food chain, to assure the end-users about the safety of food products. The legislations regarding food safety are very stringent in any part of the world. Thus, having an ISO 22000 certification acts as a badge of compliance. It makes your case favorable during the event of dispute resolution.