ISO 22000:2005

The current revision of the Food Safety Management System Standard is ISO 22000:2005

ISO 22000:2005 contains the requirements for the Food Safety Management System registration. It is the current version for ISO 22000 Registration. The ISO standards are reviewed and updated approximately every 6 years.

The ISO 22000:2005 standard is a management systems standard that can be applied to any organization in the food chain.

Getting Started on your ISO 22000:2005 system

How does a company begin down the path to ISO 22000:2005?

The first key step is for management to recognize the need for an ISO 22000:2005 Food Safety Management System. This is critical to achieving management commitment. Without management commitment you will not have a successful project. Management will need to provide resources as well as play a key role in the development of the system.

If top management is on board, you have accomplished a big first step. If not, getting them well informed is a good place to start. Once they understand what is required, and what the benefits of a good ISO 22000:2005 management system are they are much more likely to give the project their support.

Have management identify the goals for the ISO 22000:2005 Registration. Review questions such as: Is Registration or Certification the main goal? Is there a customer or market requirement? If not, what is the goal or reason for building the system?

Compare these goals to what a 22000:2005 Food Safety Management System (FSMS) will do for you. A 22000:2005 FSMS will give you and your customers confidence in a globally recognized quality system, expand market opportunities and bring improvement to your processes.

Educate the decision makers on what the 22000:2005 FMSM requires, and what it will take to achieve it. If you have already done a Gap Analysis you will have an idea of how big of a project it will be. You may have quite a bit in place that already addresses requirements; this is especially true if you already have a strong HACCP system in place. Quality processes or systems that you have in place already will mean a shorter implementation project.