ISO 22000 Certification| ISO 22000 Certification Process| HMS Limited

Are you struggling to understand the complex requirements of ISO 22000 and how to apply them to your food business? Many companies face the challenge of meeting food safety standards.

HMS Limited is your trusted partner in navigating this complexity. Let us help you turn your challenges into a smooth path to certification. Contact us and get a free consultation today!

What is ISO 22000?

An international food safety standard known as ISO 22000:2018 has been updated to reflect the most current criteria for food safety management in the food supply chain on a global scale.

Food safety management systems (FSMS) may be developed, implemented, monitored, and continually improved using ISO 22000. Moreover, it combines and enhances the fundamental features of the HACCP standard and ISO 9001 to offer an effective framework.

It’s designed for enterprises to develop a more focused, coherent, and integrated FSMS than legislation generally needs to get ISO 22000 certification. The standard mandates that a food safety system fulfils all relevant food safety-related legislative and regulatory requirements.

Key Advantages of ISO 22000 Certification for Your Business

ISO 22000 has so many benefits to offer your organization. However, some of the benefits are given below:

• The management system reduces the time it takes to investigate food safety breaches.
• Consistently provide goods and services that meet or exceed your customers’ needs.
• Global standards for selecting suppliers are established via certification, acknowledged, and approved worldwide.
• It speaks volumes when a globally accepted industry-standard is independently verified.
• Get to know your consumers and your company’s legal and regulatory obligations.
• Certification opens doors since procurement standards often require it as a precondition for supplying a product.
• Suitable for reacting to circumstances when food safety is at risk.

Why Implement an ISO 22000 System?

Implementing an FSMS is an “active,” methodical, and rational strategy addressing food safety concerns.

As with other International Standards, the standard’s structure is similar. This common approach allows enterprises to combine a single management system that satisfies the needs of two or more different management systems (ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 27001, ISO 45001, and ISO 22301).

Using this standard will benefit your company since it reduces the most significant food hazards while also increasing customer and end-consumer safety.

ISO 22000 Standard Explained: Scope, Terms, and Requirements

Basic and other specifications of ISO 22000 is given below:

• Scope: It focuses on methods that can verify the existence of activities that can fulfill the client’s and regulatory criteria for food safety and applies this standard to enterprises engaged directly or indirectly in a food chain step, regardless of size or complexity.

• Conventional Approaches: This section lists the words and meanings that may be used to determine the terminology used in this standard.

• Term & Concept Clarification: In addition to the 82 definitions provided in the ISO 9000 standard specification, there’re several extra definitions related to the terminology used in food applications that this element refers to.

• Safety and Quality Control for Food: To show the need for constructing an integrated food safety management system, this section focuses on the necessary documentation and records needed to validate the effectiveness of the system’s development, implementation, and upgrading.

• Resource Control: With the requirement to teach people to satisfy their own training needs, and the necessity to record all training activity, its progress, outcomes and effectiveness, this aspect requires managerial responsibility in the company.

ISO 22000 Certification Process: Steps to Implementation

Generally, a company may implement the system to manage food safety by taking the following steps:

1. To acquire a certificate or self-declaration of conformity, a business must meet all of the requirements of ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 as specified in this one standard.
2. The organization’s top management should choose a management representative and teamwork for food safety management system development and execution.
3. A food safety investigation is conducted for the organization and its goods, activities, and operations in the state.
4. Prepare the Prerequisite Program PRP (training, sterilization, maintenance, consecutive, review suppliers, alter non-matching items, call processes, etc.) and implement it at the plant.
5. Hazard Analysis & Important Control Points (HACCP) is used in food manufacturing to identify risks and critical control points (HACCP).
6. The organization’s top management members will join a task force to prepare an organizational strategy for implementing the stated program in step 4 and procedures outlined in step 5 by giving the required resources.
7. To prepare the target facility for the intended transformation, the business should develop and execute a food safety management system awareness training program for all facility personnel.
8. Officials and specialists should execute the executive plan produced in Step 2, and top management should supply the required resources.
9. After the new system is implemented and has been stable for a reasonable period, the organization’s senior management assigns specialists with appropriate expertise, both inside and outside the organization, to conduct a comprehensive audit on the new system’s implementation.
10. The audit findings frequently show “non-matches” with the food safety management system criteria, and senior management helps to fix the “no-matches.”
11. The company must regularly execute processes 9 and 10 to maintain a good level of performance and to meet the standards of the food safety management system.
12. The senior management shall conduct regular and scheduled assessments of the organization and implement the laid down system to ensure that the organization meets the management system and standards included in the standard ISO 22000.

ISO 22000:2018 Updates: What You Need to Know for Certification

On June 19, 2018, the latest version of ISO 22000:2018 was released, including many important modifications. Among them:

• Integration is easier: All new or revised standards must adhere to the Higher Level Structure (HLS) norm, facilitating increased interchange across ISO standards. An existing ISO-based management system may easily be upgraded to meet the new requirements of ISO 22000:2018.

• Easy to comprehend: The standard’s criteria have been thoroughly re-evaluated, providing extra clarity by clarifying terminology like PRP and oPRP to make implementation and comprehension easier.

• Codex HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) alignment improved: Following the Codex process, the criteria have been updated such that HACCP development is now included in the standard.

• Implementation is easier: In order to develop a collection of papers that conform with the ISO 22000:2018, you need to have access to the standard’s published information.

• Clarification of the PDCA process: ISO 22000:2018 explains the PDCA cycle so enterprises can ensure processes are sufficiently resourced and managed and implemented improvements. Based on the concepts of Codex HACCP, the revision employs two PDCA cycles, one for food safety management and one for product production/service delivery.

• Taking a new risk management approach: Codex HACCP principles have typically been used to assess the customer’s product risk. Even under the current iteration, Codex HACCP will continue to be necessary, but it’ll be reinforced with an organization-wide risk management strategy.

ISO 22000:2018 Certification: Your Pathway to Food Safety

Each step in the food supply chain that affects the final product’s safety is covered by ISO 22000:2018 certification. The standard sets standards for a complete food safety management system, including GMP and Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP).

The ISO 22000:2018 food safety standard harmonizes the numerous national standards into a single, easy-to-understand set of rules recognized across the globe. There’re no restrictions on how any business may apply this globally recognized food safety standard throughout the whole supply chain, from farming through to retail.

Partner with HMS Limited for Trusted ISO 22000:2018 Certification

Looking for a reliable partner for ISO 22000:2018 certification? Look no further than HMS Limited, a world-leading provider of International Management System Standards implementation and maintenance services.

At HMS Limited, we’re more than just a certification provider. We are your dedicated partner, committed to guiding you through every step of the ISO 22000:2018 audit process. Our expert team possesses the experience and knowledge to ensure a smooth and efficient path to certification, demonstrating our commitment to excellence.

Click here to contact HMS Limited today for a free consultation and discover how we can help you achieve ISO 22000:2018 certification with our trusted and reliable services.