While providing their customers with safe, contamination-free food has always been an important concern for businesses in the food industry, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has seen heightened concern over potential food contamination issues. This has led to increased awareness regarding food safety practices across the entire food supply chain, as a single food contamination incident can significantly impact a businesses reputation, leading to decreased consumer confidence, and customers being reluctant to purchase food from that organisation. Businesses looking to develop effective, compliant food safety practices would significantly benefit from implementing a Food Safety Management System (FSMS), which helps companies keep food stays safe across the entire food supply chain, from manufacturing, to transporting, to selling. By implementing a FSMS across their operations, companies demonstrate a commitment to compliant food safety practices, and provide their customers with a reassurance that the food they purchase is safe for consumption.
ISO 22000 certification helps businesses develop an effective food safety program
The ISO 22000 Standards is an internationally recognised Business Management System that helps businesses develop a Food Safety Management System across their operations, and develop compliant, food safety practices in the process. Through ISO 22000 certification, businesses will not only be able to effectively audit, refine, and continually improve their own food safety practices, they can also apply these standards to other organisations within their food supply chain, thus ensuring their food stays hazard and contamination-free in both internal and external environments. Further, many ISO 22000 certified businesses see certification to these Standards as a prerequisite for working with them, meaning that certification can lead to new business opportunities. Also, as the ISO 22000 Standards are recognised across the world, by certifying to them organisations will gain new growth opportunities, be able to expand their existing market, and work at increasing their overall profits.
Specifically, ISO 22000 certification helps companies achieve their food safety goals, by helping them to:
- Meet their regulatory obligations: What businesses must do to achieve food safety compliance can depend upon several factors, including their size, location, what food they work with, how they manufacture their food products, and so on. Different businesses may be exposed to a variety of food contamination risks, and it is crucial that they keep up with all the risks they may be exposed to, and develop compliant mitigation practices. ISO 22000 certification ensures businesses audit their food safety practices against their compliance obligations, to ensure they are being met and maintained.
- Utilise the HACCP principles to achieve their food safety goals: The ISO 22000 Standards utilise the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points principles to work at mitigating food safety hazards, preventing them from occurring. The HACCP principles help organisations identify food safety hazards, and develop critical control points, which are safety practices that work at controlling potential hazards. Further, the HACCP principles help companies develop monitoring processes to continually ensure everything is operating in a safe, compliant manner, and that there are clear corrective processes in place for mitigating any food hazards that arise.
- Minimise expenditures, and increase profits: Through ISO 22000 certification, businesses will continually work at developing compliant, efficient food safety practices. This means that they will actively mitigate food safety risks, developing a more effective operations in the process. This can help with minimising their overall expenditure, increasing their profit margins, and protecting the operations from potential liabilities.
- Continually improve their food safety practices: These Standards specifically address how businesses can continually improve their food safety practices, through regular auditing and review of their existing processes. This helps businesses ensure their food safety practices align with existing marketplace concerns, that they are utilising the most effective food safety practices, and that they continually refine their practices to meet new obligations, address new food safety concerns, and so on.
Our food safety certification specialists can help with this process
This article has just briefly touched on the importance of food safety compliance, and what relevant companies should be doing to develop efficient, compliant practices. However, after reading this you may have some questions about the specifics of ISO 22000 Standards, how they can be tailored to your operations, what businesses should be doing to prepare, and so on.
Please contact our specialist consultants today by filling out this simple contact us form, or by calling them on 1300 802 163 for a short, obligation-free consultation. Give them an overview of your business, including the type of food it works with and some of the food safety challenges your operations faces, and they can then clearly explain to you how ISO 22000 certification can help your company achieve these goals, develop efficient food safety practices, and become and stay a competitive industry player. Wouldn’t you like to hear more about how ISO 22000 certification can be a recipe for success?
Please click here to read about how the revised 2020 Codex HACCP helps businesses maintain compliant food safety standards.
