ISO 22000 audit

ISO 22000 Audits plan; Food Safety Management System

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ISO 22000 standard specifies the requirements to plan, implement, operate, maintain and update a documented Food Safety Management System (FSMS). The FSMS aims to ensure that food is safe and of high quality at the time of human consumption. The requirements outlined in the standard are flexible enough to apply to all organisations across the food supply chain, regardless of their nature, complexity or size. The ISO 22000 standard is relevant to organisations that are either directly or indirectly involved in one or more steps of the food supply chain. In this article of Edarasystems, we will discuss how ISO 22000 audit contributes to the effectiveness of an FSMS by understanding what ISO 22000 audit is, and what is ISO 22000 checklist.

QMS or HACCP? ISO 22000:2018 checklist

To ensure food safety across the food chain, the standard combines the following generally accepted and widely appreciated key elements:

  • The principles of Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP).
  • Unique Prerequisite Programmes (PRP).
  • System management.
  • Interactive communication.
  • Good Manufacturing Principles (GMPs).

In addition, to the previously isolated food safety principles of an FSMS, the 2018 version incorporates the general principles of quality management, including:

  • Enhanced customer focus.
  • Leadership commitment.
  • Rich engagement of people.
  • Process-approach.
  • Evidence-based decision making.
  • Continual improvement.
  • Relationship management.

Therefore, as a consequence of combining and supplementing the core elements of ISO 9001 with the HACCP, the ISO 22000 standard can prevent food risk and control food contamination. 

iso 22000:2018 checklist

What is ISO 22000 audit?

ISO 22000 Australia audit is performed by external evaluators who evaluate your organisation to see if you are eligible for the certification. The assessment aims to check your compliance with the:

  • Leadership and management systems;
  • Sanitary and safe environment programmes;
  • Risk management and corrective actions;
  • Applicable statutory and regulatory food safety requirements.

During the first stage of the audit, the purpose is to ensure that your management system is in place and is ready to audit. In addition, the auditing body confirms the scope of the activity and begins to plan the second stage of the audit. Typically, the stage one audit is a desktop review of the food safety management system documentation, that is in place.

The second stage of the audit expands on its previous version. The auditor will repeat short auditing of your documentation, but now the focus of the audit will be more on the “operational” aspects of the organisation. During this stage, the auditor will be asking questions from your team about the roles that they have, their understanding of the policies, and how the controls are utilised. Additionally, you will have to show evidence that your system has been effectively running for a reasonable time. You can do this by showing examples of your daily operations and having the auditor examine your day-to-day work.

iso 22000 audit plan

What is the ISO 22000 audit checklist?

The purpose of an audit checklist is to prepare the company for meeting the requirements of ISO 22000 before the actual certification audit begins. By going through the audit checklist, you will be able to identify areas of improvement concerning your processes and procedures, in addition to verifying if the customer’s product requirements are being adequately researched, established and implemented. Audit checklists do not cover every aspect of ISO 22000 certification, rather, it is designed to take you through all the general requirements.

Organisations in Australia should follow the rules of Federal Safety Commissioner. If you want to know more about FSC accreditation, click on the relevant link.

fsms iso 22000

The contents of the ISO 22000:2018 clauses

Clause 4, focuses on the food safety management system.

Clause 5, outlines management responsibility.

Clause 6, which allocates and guides resource management.

Clause 7, focuses on planning and the realisation of safe products.

Clause 8, focuses on the validation, verification and improvement of the FSMS.

To reap the maximum benefit out of an ISO 22000 checklist, it is recommended to customise it following your organisation’s unique circumstances. This is because the checklist cannot guide specific risks and controls that apply to every situation. In order to avoid mixing and adding essential features of QMS with FSMS, you need to understand the ISO 9001 meaning.

iso 22000 audit checklist

Benefits of implementing ISO 22000 audit

The standard helps in improving an organisation’s food and safety performance. It includes a systematic method of addressing food safety issues including unsafe food importation, food-borne illnesses, insufficient food security and food contamination. Implementing the standard will benefit your organisation in the following ways:

  • Compliance with global regulatory requirements: The standard sets internationally-recognised food safety standards for controlling food, helping an organisation to grow globally with the recognised set of processes that prevent costly ramifications including product recall, penalties, fines and business shutdown.
  • Promoting health and safety regulation: The success of any business is paramount to health and safety regulations. ISO 22000 helps reduce health and safety risks including food poisoning, chemical contamination, work-related incidents or injuries.
  • Improved risk response: With an effective FSMS in place, any business can immediately respond to any unexpected food safety issues, diminishing its investigation time to identify security breaches and enhancing its response rate.

In this article, we talked about ISO 22000 audit. Now you can tell what the benefits of FSMS are; Also you are familiar with ISO 22000 checklist and its clauses. If you need any help to get your FSMS certification, you can count on Edara System.

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