ISO 22000 requirements explained: video brief

The management system around food safety

ISO 22000:2018 follows the harmonised structure of the ISO management system standards, clauses 4 to 10, with the food-safety-specific requirements in clause 8. This short film maps those requirements.

Context asks you to understand the issues, interested parties and food chain position that shape food safety and to define the scope: in practice a scope naming the products, processes and sites to be certified. Leadership means committing to food safety, setting the policy, assigning roles and appointing the food safety team and its leader, with clear responsibility for hold, release and recall decisions. Planning sets measurable objectives, such as targets for critical control point deviations and complaints, and plans changes to lines, products or suppliers before they happen. Support brings people, infrastructure, work environment, competence, communication with suppliers, customers and authorities, and controlled documented information.

Clause 8: the food safety operation

Clause 8 is the operational core. Prerequisite programmes provide the basic hygienic conditions. Traceability and emergency preparedness are set up. The hazard analysis identifies the hazards in each product and process and decides how each is controlled, through operational prerequisite programmes or critical control points, gathered into the hazard control plan. Control measures are validated, monitored and verified, and product that may be unsafe is handled up to withdrawal or recall.

Performance evaluation and improvement close the loop with internal audit, management review and corrective action. ISO 22000 was written for every link in the food chain, from feed and farming through manufacturing and packaging to storage, transport, catering and retail. Certification is assessed and decided by an independent, accredited certification body; FSSC 22000 builds on ISO 22000 and adds GFSI recognition.

The certificate is only worth having when the two levels work together: a management system that keeps the food safety operation current, and an operation whose records show the controls working on every line and shift.