The Foundation for Food Safety Certification was founded in 2004. The Foundation developed FSSC 22000, the ISO 22000 and PAS 220 based certification scheme for certification of food manufacturers. This development is supported by Food Drink Europe. The scheme is recognized by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI).


About FSSC 22000

FSSC 22000 contains a complete certification scheme for Food Safety Systems based on existing standards for certification (ISO 22000, ISO 22003 and technical specifications for sector PRPs). The certification will be accredited under the standard ISO guide 17021. Manufacturers that are already certified against ISO 22000 will only need an additional review against technical specifications for sector PRPs to meet this certification scheme. Organizations that want to integrate quality in their management systems follow the requirements of ISO 9001.


It is developed for the certification of food safety systems of organizations in the food chain that process or manufacture animal products, perishable vegetal products, products with a long shelf life, (other) food ingredients like additives, vitamins, bio-cultures and food packaging material manufacturing.


FSCC 22000 is ready for new scopes at the moment the necessary technical specifications for sector PRPs have been realized and large players in the international food sectors would request FSSC 22000 to cover these sectors.


FSSC 22000 has as mission to be the globally leading, independent, non-profit, ISO-bases and GFSI-accepted food safety certification scheme for the whole supply chain.


The FSSC 22000 certification scheme has been given full recognition by the Global Food Safety Initiative Board of Directors. This follows an extensive benchmarking process using the requirements laid out in the GFSI Guidance Document Version 5, and an addendum which was issued in December 2009. FSSC will be benchmarked against GFSI GD 6.


The Foundation for Food Safety Certification retains the ownership and the copyright and the licence agreements for certification bodies


The Standard Requires:

The adoption and implementation of HACCP.
A document and effective Quality Management system.
The Control of factory environment Standards products, processes and personnel.

Why is the FSSC 22000 certification scheme developed?

For broader acceptance of ISO 22000 and ISO/TS 22002-1 / PAS 220 from the food supply chain stakeholders, it needs to be recognized by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) as an equivalent to the other recognized schemes.
To meet the GFSI requirements, you need more than an acceptable standard – there must be a certification scheme and an audit protocol, and these must be “owned” by an appropriate organization.
FSSC 22000 is the name chosen for the sum of these parts – Food Safety System Certification 22000.
The FSSC 22000 scheme has been submitted to GFSI for benchmarking prior to acceptance.

What is the benefit of FSSC 22000 Certification?

FSSC 22000 is owned by a non profit foundation.
FSSC is managed by a Board of Stakeholders representing all relevant international stakeholders with an independent chair. This makes FSSC 22000 independent from any specific stakeholder and ensures international commitment.
Certification enables manufacturers to focus their Food Safety efforts on scientific and technical advances, and their audit resources on improvement rather than compliance.
As the scheme is based on an ISO standard:
it has truly worldwide credibility.
it provides a common language, improving communication across the supply chain.
it provides a systematic management protocol for PRPs, with control focused on what is really necessary.
it provides confidence to other stakeholders that an organization has the ability to identify and control food safety hazards.
it provides sufficient flexibility for specific customer requirements to be taken into account.

What is ISO/TS22002-1/PAS220 and how does it fit with ISO 22000?

ISO/TS 22002-1 / PAS 220 is a document designed to support the implementation of ISO 22000. ISO 22000, section 7.2.3, explicitly requires the implementation of prerequisite programmes, and gives a list of topics to consider, but does not specify what the PRPs should comprise (ISO/TS 22002-1 / PAS 220 specifies these PRPs for food and food ingredient manufacturing processes).



Why was it developed?

Existing schemes have a reasonable consistency of requirements, but there is no true consistency of auditing & certification.
The schemes are “owned” by stakeholders in the food supply chain. Major/multi-national manufacturers saw a benefit in moving to a truly independent certification scheme which under the ISO banner would have worldwide recognition.
Global reach of ISO presents an opportunity to minimize system and audit variations based on geography, sector, product customer etc. and may reduce barriers to trade across borders and across the supply chain.
ISO/TS 22002-1 / PAS 220 was developed to “fill in the gaps” for PRPs – specifically for manufacturing operations. Providing a rigorous, consensus based standard which enables ISO 22000 + ISO/TS 22002-1 / PAS 220 to meet the GFSI requirements for recognition as a certification scheme. [Equivalent to its existing recognized schemes].


Who developed it?

ISO/TS 22002-1 / PAS 220 was developed by BSI under sponsorship, through Food Drink Europe, of 4 multinational companies – Kraft, Danone, Unilever and Nestle.

The Technical Author was Steve Mould of Kraft Foods, and the steering team included representatives from FDF, McDonalds, Unilever, LRQA, CIASA, ProCert and members of the ISO 22000 working group.
In addition, extensive consultation with a review team was used to refine the drafts to the PAS we see today. The RT included approx 50 respondents from manufacturing, trade and consumer groups and regulators.

How can I switch from ISO 22000 to FSSC 22000 certification?

Companies that have existing ISO 22000 certification can choose to either.
Use a ISO 22000 surveillance audit or additional on-site audit to confirm that next to the ISO 22000 aspects also PAS 220/ISO 22002-1 and the additional FSSC22000 requirements are met. If this is confirmed and reported in the correct format by a certification body meeting the FSSC 22000 requirements, a FSSC 22000 certificate may follow for the remainder of the validity of the existing ISO 22000 certificates. The validation of existing certificate shall also include verification of auditor qualification and audit duration against FSSC 22000 rules.
Do a full FSSC 22000 audit including ISO 22000, the applicable technical specification for sector PRPs and the additional FSSC requirements. This would result in an FSSC 22000 certificate with a validity of 3 years.

For more details, visit   www.fssc22000.com