FSSC – 22000: Food Safety system Certification Scheme
FSSC 22000:2010 (Food Safety System Certification) is an international standard developed for the certification of Food Safety Management Systems for food manufacturing organisations. It combines the requirements of ISO 22000:2005(Food Safety Management Systems Requirements) and PAS 220:2008(Prerequisite Programmes on Food Safety for Food Manufacturing).
The FSSC 22000:2010 scheme is recognized by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), the benchmarking body for the harmonization of international food safety standards, along with other food safety management schemes like the BRC, IFS and SQF. The inclusion of ISO 22000 requirements in the FSSC 22000standard makes it align with other generic management systems such as the ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 to enable effective system integration. FSSC 22000 is a complete certification scheme for food safety management systems.
ISO 22000 is very useful to harmonize the food safety management systems based on the HACCP principles; its general nature limits its suitability for the retailers to guarantee their own supply chain, needing more detailed and food manufacturing specific “pre-requisite program” related requirements (e.g., with regards to the “due diligence” issue). This is the underlying reason for setting up a new certification scheme targeting food manufacturers in particular, combining the management system approach, HACCPmethodology and detailed guidelines regarding pre-requisite programmes.
FSSC 22000 is a complete certification scheme for food safety management systems. It is based on ISO 22000, the global food safety management system standard and PAS 220, a standard developed to address prerequisite programme requirements for food product and ingredient manufacturers. The requirements and guidelines of FSSC 22000 are described in four parts:
- Part I – requirements of food safety system and guidance on how to apply for certification
- Part II – requirements for providing certification, including the regulation for certification bodies and the harmonization committee
- Part III – requirements for providing accreditation, including the regulation for accreditation bodies
- Part IV – regulations for the Board of Stakeholders