ISO 22000 Standards
ISO 22000 refers to international standards guiding the proper management of food. These standards aim at protecting the consumer's safety. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO), a non-profit and non-governmental group based in Geneva, Switzerland, issued these guidelines in 2005. ISO 22000 covers food production, distribution and trade within and in-between countries.
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Significance
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The industry takes advantage of the warm climate in different parts of the world to deliver seasonal fruits and vegetables twelve months a year. This convenience presents some side effects unfortunately. Food-related diseases have crossed borders and entered countries. They are carried by the fruits and vegetables from foreign nations. Furthermore, hand manipulation of processed food, which has increased drastically in volume, has brought additional risks of contamination. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports that more than 75 millions of Americans experience food poisoning or related diseases each year and 5,000 die from acute reaction.
History
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ISO 22000 finds its roots in an initiative from the Pillsbury Company, which designed the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) system in 1959 to protect the integrity of food used in the manned space programs. The HACCP program focused on keeping food intact in a zero gravity environment and on controlling bacteria and pathogen growth. European countries evolve the HACCP principles into their own national control policies. ISO came on board to harmonize the various national policies and developed a common set of international guidelines.
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ISO 22000 Principles
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ISO 22000 becomes relevant to organizations involved in animal or food production, sale and trade. It calls for a top down approach starting with strategic goals setting safety objectives. These goals are then translated into procedures touching all aspects of the food chain, from the reception of the goods into the organization, their handling, their packaging to their distribution. Frequent checkpoints ensure that the food remains safe. When an alert is triggered, immediate intervention steps in and consumers are informed.
ISO 22000 Accreditation
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A company seeking an ISO 22000 certificate hires an accreditation agency to verify that it complies to the ISO 22000:2005 standards. An accreditation firm will send auditors to assess the compliance. The auditors may spend one to several days reviewing the company’s policies, consumer safety goals, procedures and hazard detection. The outcome from the audit includes a report that discusses the auditors' conclusions. Upon a positive assessment, the accreditation firm issues the ISO 22000:2005 certification.
Benefits
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ISO 22000 opened the communications between producers, distributors and sellers. It raised the awareness of disease propagation through the fruits and vegetables and made everyone involved in the food chain process accountable for consumers’ safety. Traceability of the goods, one of ISO 22000 new rules, accelerates the investigation and source of the problem. It also allows finding the group consumers that may be affected.
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References
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- Photo Credit Food image by Yvonne Bogdanski from Fotolia.com
