Regulatory and standards compliance is a requirement that meets with regular resistance from CFOs and CEOs who must justify the expense. Brand protection from recalls and costly litigation is essential; ultimately avoiding catastrophic business outcomes proves less of a driver for actionable traceability than seeking enhanced profitability.

The paradigm has shifted from traceability as a necessary evil to a quantifiable lean-enhanced profitability process.

With food safety at the highest levels of concern by the average customer, the ISO 22000 (and Publicly Available Specification (PAS) 220) standard developed by the International Organization for Standardization, complying with food safety regulations has never been more important than it is today. Communication in the food chain is essential to ensure that all relevant food safety hazards are identified and adequately controlled at each step within the food chain.

This interactive communication is the first step in the ISO 22000 international standard, which specifies the requirements for a food safety management system includes system management and utilizes hazard analysis and critical control points (HACCP) principles.

HACCP is a systematic preventive approach to food safety and pharmaceutical safety that addresses physical, chemical, and biological hazards as a means of prevention rather than finished product inspection. HACCP is used in the food industry to identify potential food safety hazards so that key actions can be taken at critical control points to reduce or eliminate the risk of the hazards being realized. The system is used at all stages of food production and preparation processes, including packaging and distribution. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) use mandatory juice, seafood, meat, and poultry HACCP programs as an effective approach to protecting public health. Meat and poultry HACCP systems are regulated by the USDA, while seafood and juice are regulated by the FDA. The use of HACCP is currently voluntary in other food industries.

Quality assurance professionals understand the importance of planned and systematic production processes that provide confidence in a product's suitability for its intended purpose. The set of activities intended to ensure that products (goods and/or services) satisfy customer requirements in a systematic, reliable fashion cannot absolutely guarantee the production of quality products, which is unfortunate, but it does make the intended outcome more likely. The challenge is that the technology selection process to support these standards is rarely made by a quality assurance (QA) professional. While a decision-influencer in such technology solutions, the QA or quality control manager must find a way to justify the expense and demonstrate profitability, not merely brand protection and catastropy avoidance.

ISO 22000 users

Because ISO 22000 is a generic food safety management standard, it can be applied to and used by any organization directly or indirectly involved in the food chain. Organizational complexity and size are not relevant for the ISO 22000 standard to help ensure the safety of its food products.

The food chain consists of the entire sequence of stages and operations involved in the creation and consumption of food products. This includes every step from initial production to final consumption. More precisely, it includes the production, processing, distribution, storage, and handling of all food and food ingredients.

The food chain also includes organizations that produce feed for animals that will be used as food and for other organizations that don’t directly handle food. It also includes organizations that produce materials that will eventually come into contact with food or food ingredients.

ISO 22000 can be used by:

Primary producers

• Farms

• Ranches

• Fisheries

• Dairies

Processors

• Fish processors

• Meat processors

• Poultry processors

• Feed processors

Manufacturers

• Soup manufacturers

• Snack manufacturers

• Bread manufacturers

• Cereal manufacturers

• Dressing manufacturers

• Beverage manufacturers

• Seasoning manufacturers

• Packaging manufacturers

• Frozen food manufacturers

• Canned food manufacturers

• Confectionery manufacturers

• Dietary supplement manufacturers

Food service providers

• Grocery stores

• Restaurants

• Cafeterias

• Hospitals

• Hotels

• Resorts

• Airlines

• Cruise ships

• Seniors lodges

• Nursing homes

• Other service providers

• Storage service providers

• Catering service providers

• Logistics service providers

• Transportation service providers

• Distribution service providers

• Sanitation service providers

• Cleaning service providers

Product suppliers

• Suppliers of tools

• Suppliers of utensils

• Suppliers of equipment

• Suppliers of additives

• Suppliers of ingredients

• Suppliers of raw materials

• Suppliers of cleaning agents

• Suppliers of sanitizing agents

• Suppliers of packaging materials

• Suppliers of other food contact materials

This is not an exhaustive list, but provides a flavor for the scope and possible application of ISO 22000. While there’s efficacy in the standard, persuading the key financial decision-makers to implement these technology tools continues to meet with resistance. There are many software solutions for traceability, some installed, others offered as software as a service (SaaS, which require less up-front capitalization and therefore are often better received). The greatest limitation for these traceability technologies is that few of them use the collected traceability data to examine and derive increased profitability throughout the supply chain. There are exceptions.