The international standard ISO 22000 defines the requirements for food safety management systems.

The consequences of consuming unsafe food can be serious, and the ISO 22000 food safety standards help organizations identify and control food safety hazards. Since many of the modern foodstuffs repeatedly cross national borders, international standards are needed to ensure the security of the global food supply chain.

The ISO 22000 standard is intended for the certification of food safety management systems of organizations participating in the food chain, processing or producing the following products:

• products with small and long shelf life,
• food ingredients,
• livestock products,
• packaging for food,
• equipment,
• cleansers.

The necessary requirements for food industry enterprises, which are prescribed in the standard ISO 22000, are the following:

• use of only specialized machinery, machines and equipment for production,
• safe use of buildings and premises, timely inspection of equipment and its maintenance,
• timely and sufficient supply of water, steam and air,
• proper use of raw materials and materials used in production,
• proper handling of semi-finished and finished food products,
• carrying out measures to prevent contamination of surfaces and equipment,
• pest control,
• sanitary and hygienic measures;
• personnel hygiene and health.

The ISO 22000 standard is designed to help participating organizations in the food chain, irrespective of their size, uniquely occupy their market segments and successfully expand its boundaries and meet requirements of the stakeholders, including the organization’s customers.

The requirements of ISO 22000 are harmonized with the requirements of other ISO standards. ISO 22000 includes the following sections: scope, definitions, principles of HACCP system development, requirements to food safety management system.

ISO 22000 includes requirements of ISO 9001, the international standard in the field of quality management systems. ISO 22000 does not include the concept of “Quality Manual”. This standard also does not include the regulation of the process approach (as a principle in building the SM-security), the requirements to preventive actions, procurement, design and development, processes related to the consumer are less described.

Advantagesof ISO 22000certification:

• building consumer trust in the products produced and, as a result, increase of the product competitiveness,
• building partner trust and significant improvement of the investment attractiveness,
• access to the international market, expansion of the existing market, as well as advantages when participating in tenders,
• less defects and claims (product recalls) in total production and sales volumes,
• documentary evidence of safety of the products produces and services provided in the food industry,
• additional opportunities for QMS integration according to ISO 9001,
• highly effective PR (application of conformity mark),
• additional opportunities when receiving orders from state and other institutions (schools, kindergartens, hospitals),
• management system based on universally recognized principles in place,
• use of precautionary control measures.

ISO 22000 standard for food safety management systems that has reached the level of an international standard, is being revised. The revised standard will include a new basic structure, as well as recognized key elements for ensuring food safety at every stage of the food chain.

Revision of ISO 22000 aims to consolidate the latest food safety concerns, in accordance with the current landscape of the food sector. This is a very complex process, and the working group that revised this standard considered several broad concepts. Now their main task is to translate the revised concepts included in the standard and transfer them to users in an understandable and concise manner that facilitates the understanding and implementation of ISO 22000 for organizations of any size in every aspect of the food chain.

The new ISO 22000 version will contain a number of minor changes that have been introduced to improve the readability and clarity of the standard, as well as some significant changes that are more structural in nature.

The main points of the new ISO 22000 version are:

• New version will adopt a new high-level ISO (HLS) structure, which is the common basis for all management system standards. This general structure simplifies the business for integrating more than one management system into their processes at a given time.
• The revised standard will provide a new understanding of the “risk” notion. The risk is a vital concept for the food industry, and the standard will distinguish between the risk at the operational level (using the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point or HACCP approach) and the risk at the strategic level of the management system (business risk) with its ability to seize opportunities to achieve specific business goals.
• The standard will clarify the difference between the two Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycles. The first one relates to the management system as a whole, and the second one, embedded in it, refers to the operations described in Section 8, which simultaneously covers the HACCP principles defined by the Codex Alimentarius.