Increasing Food-Borne Illnesses Sparked New Standard Creation

Published: Monday, October 10, 2005 - 21:00

The International Organization for Standardization released a new standard this month in response to a significant increase in the number of food-borne illnesses around the world.

ISO 22000 harmonizes regional requirements for managing food supply chains on a worldwide basis. It’s designed to allow all types of organizations in the food supply chain to implement its concepts, from feed producers, primary producers, food manufacturers, and transport and storage operators, and their subcontractors, to retail and food service outlets. The standard is also applicable to producers of equipment, packaging material, cleaning agents and additives.A major benefit of the new standard is that it will make it easer for organizations to implement the hazard analysis and critical control point (HACCP) system for food hygiene in a harmonized way.

Food safety management systems can be registered to ISO 22000, which answers the growing demand in the food sector for supplier certification, although it can also be implemented without conformity certification and solely for the benefits its provides.

Developed with food sector experts, ISO 22000 incorporates the principles of HACCP and covers the requirements of key standards developed by various global food retailers. The standard also incorporates much of ISO 9001, under the assumption that the most effective food safety systems are designed, operated and continually improved within the framework of a structured management system. While ISO 22000 can be implemented on its own, it is fully compatible with ISO 9001 and companies already registered to ISO 9001 will find it easy to extend their registrations to ISO 22000, reports ISO.

“Public sector participation in the development of the ISO 22000 family is also significant,” says ISO Secretary-General Alan Bryden. “Notably that of the FAO/WHO’s Codex Alimentarius Commission, which is responsible for the well-known HACCP system for food hygiene. Thanks to the strong partnership between ISO and Codex, ISO 22000 will facilitate the implementation of HACCP and the food hygiene principles development by this preeminent body in this field.”

The ISO 22000:2005 family of standards will include the following:

ISO/TS 22004: Will give guidance on the implementation of the standard. It will be published in November 2005.
ISO/TS 22003: Will outline requirements for auditing and certification bodies. To be published in the first quarter of 2006.
ISO 22005: Will circulate as a draft international standard with general principles for system design and development.

For more information, visit www.iso.org.

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