Getting Certified & Implementing Food Safety ISO 22000
ISO 22000 standard is one of the widely used ISO standards for many reasons that we had previously discussed. It comes with tons of benefits and more superior to many other ISO standards. It’s design and management make it possible to be established and implemented in very many organizations. If you have forgotten all about the benefit of this standard, then we will refresh your mind with highlights. If you are well conversant with them, then you can as well skip the rest of this section and jump to the next one.
Benefits of Food Safety ISO 22000 certification
When you get certified, you will enjoy the following benefits:
- Improved health and safety
- Improved customer satisfaction
- Enhanced transparency
- Improved response to risks
- Help meeting regulatory requirements
- Help meeting other standards and guidelines
- Reduced investigation time
You can also add more to that list that we have left out. Please note that it is not meant to be exploitative. We have left out quite a number of benefits that come with this standard, but we have at least set your mind to think along that line. So, you can come up with more advantages.
Steps to Become Certified
You can use the principles of ISO 22000 even if you are not certified. After all, the implementation and compliance with this standard are all voluntary. You only do it at will, but you have more reasons to do it than not to do it. At the end of the day, different organizations in the food industry will all be rushing for certification services to compete favorably in the market. This will come automatically as no one will be ready to lag behind when almost everyone is taking advantage of certification.
Before you think of the certification, you first have to go through the implementation processes. This also requires you to get the necessary training so that you can do everything according to the standards. Once you have implemented a Food Safety Management System (FSMS), you can then apply for certification from ISO-Pros. We are an accredited certification body that has been helping different organizations through the certification processes for many different ISO standards, not just ISO 22000.
According to ISO-Pros, certification for ISO 22000 is complicated in the following three basic steps:
- Application
- Assessment
- Certification
These are basic steps that are used for almost all the ISO standard certification processes. We are going to discuss what is expected in every step until you get issued with your certificate.
- Application
This comes as the first step after you have implemented FSMS according to the requirements of ISO 22000. You can apply for certification from a company of your choice provided it is accredited. When you choose to work with us as most clients do, then you should be guaranteed that your organization will be finally certified however long and tiresome the process might turn out to be.
You can send your application to ISO-Pros by filling out our online form, writing an email to us, or by contacting us directly through your mobile phone. For other services such as training and consultation that we offer, you can think of video conferencing. We are not going to discuss that for now.
- Assessment
This is normally the longest and resource-intensive stage. The amounts of resources that you will use will depend on how prepared you are for certification. For that reason, we would advise you to first do an internal audit, if possible, to identify any nonconformities before calling our experts for certification.
The assessment is done in two stages. We have the first round of audits and the second round of audits. During all these stages, your organization should consistently show that its FSMS complies with the ISO 22000 standards. Before you even think of scheduling the first auditing, you have to make sure that your FSMS has been in operation long enough to make you use the result from its performance to improve it. This period is usually not less than 3 months.
The first audit
This is mainly done to show that your organization is ready for the full audit done in stage two. Our auditors will do the following during this stage:
- Confirm that your FSMS meets the standards of ISO 22000
- Verify the process followed for the implementation of FSMS if it complies to what is specified in ISO 22000
- Confirm what will be included in the certification
- Gives you a report of the assessment with any nonconformities identified during this first round
- Sets out a procedure for the next assessment and schedule an appropriate time for it.
The Second audit
- During this stage, our auditors will do the following:
- Assess all the processes and activities that are related to the food products that you handle
- Conduct proper documentation of the finding on whether or not your organization complies with the ISO 22000 standards or not.
Any other additional activities may be carried out but not absolutely necessary. Minor non-conformities may be reported to the organization and certificate issued while major non-conformities will have to be corrected before the certificate of compliance is issued. The organization is usually given 3 months to correct all the nonconformities.
- Certification
As we have already said, a certificate of compliance is finally issued to the organization if its FSMS is found to comply with Iso 22000. Otherwise, it will be expected to correct all the nonconformities identified before another round of auditing is done and a certificate finally issued. That is all for this step in the certification process.
If you were certified for ISO 22000:2005, then you need to adjust your FSMS to conform with the new changes that are in the ISO 22000:2018. That is very necessary as there are many aspects introduced in this new standard that will affect your business. You can talk to us to get enlightened about these changes. Our experts are ready to respond to any questions that you have to ask.