What is this standard about?
BS EN ISO 22000:2018 Food Safety Management Systems is a full revision of the international food safety standard first published in 2005. It covers how any organization in the food chain can implement and operate a food safety management system that produces food that’s safe for consumers to eat.
BS EN ISO 22000:2018 provides clear guidance and recommendations that apply to the whole food chain, from primary production to retail, hence contributing to reducing food hazards.
This revised standard also supports Goal 2* of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, by reducing food hazards and improving food safety to ensure access to safe, nutritious, and sufficient food.
Who is this standard for?
It can be used by all organizations in the food chain, regardless of size or complexity. This includes:
- Food manufacturers
- Ingredient suppliers and producers
- Packers/distributors
- Transportation, storage and distribution services
- Food service outlets
- Caterers
- Farms
- Harvesters of wild plants or animals
- Animal food producers
- Organizations providing cleaning and sanitation services
- Retailers
- Suppliers of equipment
- Suppliers of cleaning and disinfectants
- Suppliers of packaging and other food contact materials
Why should you use this standard?
BS EN ISO 22000:2018 specifies requirements for a food safety management system (FSMS) to enable an organization that is directly or indirectly involved in the food chain:
- To plan, implement, operate, maintain and update a FSMS providing products and services that are safe, according to their intended use
- To demonstrate compliance with applicable statutory and regulatory food safety requirements
- To evaluate and assess mutually agreed customer food safety requirements and demonstrate conformity with them
- To effectively communicate food safety issues to interested parties within the food chain
- To ensure that the organization conforms to its stated food safety policy
- To demonstrate conformity with relevant interested parties
- To seek certification or registration of its FSMS by an external organization, or make a self-assessment or self-declaration of conformity to this document.
What’s changed since the last update?
This substantial revision is the first since its initial publication in 2005. A major benefit of this revision is that it follows ISO’s High Level Structure, making your food safety management system compatible with other ISO management systems standards such as ISO 9001 Quality Management, ISO 14001 Environment Management and ISO 45001 Occupational Health and Safety.
In addition, the revised standard:
- Clarifies the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle so organizations can ensure their processes are adequately resourced and managed and that opportunities for improvement are acted on. The revision adopts two inter-related PDCA cycles, the food safety management system and the product production/service delivery PDCA based around the Codex HACCP principles.
- Adopts a different approach to understanding business/organizational risk and opportunities associated with the food chain. The revision enables organizations to put in place controls to take advantage of opportunities and minimize adverse effects as well as apply the risk concept at organizational as well as at operational level through HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points)
- Improves the operational requirements structure which is reconfigured as:
- Operational planning and control
- Hazard control and control plans
- Updating of controls.
