FOOD SAFETY

Food safety is a global concern, not only because of the importance for public health, but also because of its impact on international trade. Globalization of food production and procurement makes food chains longer and more complex and increases the risk of food safety incidents. Effective and harmonized food safety systems shall manage and ensure the safety and suitability of food in each link of the supply chain. For this reason ISO developed the standard for food safety management systems ISO 22000, which applies to all organizations in the food chain and thus ensures integrity of the chain. Parallel to this development there is an increasing need for harmonized certification of the food safety systems in order to create justified confidence that all necessary measures are taken to ensure food safety in previous links of the chain. In this context ISO developed the technical specification ISO/TS 22003 that contains requirements for bodies providing certification of the food safety management systems.These developments were triggered by the increasing need of food manufacturers for a generally accepted food safety certificate that meets with the requirements of the subsequent customers in the chain and may incorporate the requirements of the different certification schemes of the retail organizations.As a follow up the Confederation of the Food and Drink Industry of the EU (CIAA) took the initiative to develop a technical specification that specifies the requirements for good practices in food manufacturing and that meets customer requirements. Implementation of these good practices is an essential part of the food safety system and creates confidence in trade. The British Standard Institution, BSI issued these requirements as the publicly available specification BSI-PAS 220.As a next step CIAA initiated the development of a certification scheme for food safety systems of food manufacturers that incorporates the standards ISO 22000, BSI-PAS 220 and guidance on the application of ISO 22000, ISO/TS 22004. The aim of this scheme is to harmonize the certification requirements and methods for food safety systems in the food chain and to ensure the issue of trustworthy food safety certificates that are comparable as regards content and scope. The Foundation was commissioned by CIAA to develop this scheme and retains the legal ownership and the license agreements for the certification bodies.
sourse: www.fssc22000.com