Cooking up a standard
With so many different standards proliferating the food industry, could the new food standard, ISO 22000, be an all-encompassing catch-all that will harmonize the industry once and for all? David Edwards investigates
Autumn 2005 hailed the launch of ISO 22000, the new global standard for food safety management, which aims to become the ultimate international standard for the food industry. It requires an organization to demonstrate its ability to manage food safety hazards and provide consistently safe products that meet both the customer’s requirements and those of food safety regulations.
Throughout the world food safety is one of the most important issues in the food supply chain and ISO 22000 provides both an opportunity to achieve international harmonization in the field of food safety standards and a tool to build on hazard analysis critical control point (HACCP) - an approach that anticipates and prevents hazards associated with ingredients - throughout the food supply chain as a standard that is suitable for all industry stakeholders.
Unlike other similar standards, ISO 22000 has been formulated so that it can be applied to all organizations in the food supply chain, from primary producers through processing, storage and distribution, retail and catering, as well as inter-related organizations such as equipment and additives producers. It has been a long time coming and is not the first attempt to introduce an international food standard, many of which have failed to make the cross-industry impact due to sector restrictions or limited adoption across different countries and continents.
ISO 22000 can thus potentially fulfil a valuable role in harmonizing the approach to food safety standards while at the same time appealing to all sectors in the food chain. This has led to a lot of interest around the world with representatives from 14 countries sitting on the working group, including organizations such as the Global Food Safety Initiative and the European Confederation of the Food and Drink Industry.
Standardize the world
One of the key questions is still: Will ISO 22000 simply become just another of the preferred standards in selected parts of the global market, led by some retailers and manufacturers? Alternatively could it become the platform from which the food industry addresses the not inconsiderable challenges it faces going forward into the next decade?
Strategically, in terms of global trade, traceability and brand, stakeholder values and tactically, in relation to enforcement, quality and consumer issues, there are many positive attributes in the standard for industry to ponder. As business demands become more acute and the need to demonstrate technical and legal capabilities in the delivery of safe food become paramount, ISO 22000 could provide an independently certified route to demonstrating compliance to legislation and market place requirements.
On a practical level, though, it could be asked why the major retailers, manufacturers and other suppliers should rush to adopt or require the new standard as a condition of supply. Currently own-label retailers in the UK are generally happy with the British Retail Consortium Global food standard issue four, as are the German and French retailers happy with the IFS Standard, while Eurep-GAP is a further respected international standard for agricultural produce. Retailers have developed, supported and progressively refined these other standards for many years now to meet their particular due diligence and supplier assurance requirements with specific guidance on good manufacturing practices and compliance levels.
This becomes more significant when you consider that ISO 22000 does not have detailed guidance on requirements for good practice. This does not necessarily mean, however, that the existing standards need be at odds with ISO 22000 or require duplication of assessments, if existing and proven good manufacturing practices can be illustrated and if in the longer term there is role for equivalency acceptance.
As an internationally recognised global standard ISO 22000 is likely to be of interest to a diverse number of companies, providing it contributes to increased due diligence, improved commercial benefits and potentially increased brand protection with the overall aim that in time it becomes a recognisable mark of achievement for business-to-business trade.
Sector-wide take up
The disciplines and rigour of the new standard has recognisable value to large, multi-sited organizations and this is most likely to be recognised by the major international manufacturers, at least some of whom will adopt it as a progressive step forward to build on the current HACCP-based approach to food safety.
For other organizations, the value of ISO 22000 in terms of actually raising standards of performance will be less attractive than the potential marketing opportunities it presents, particularly for those who supply to parts of the world outside Europe, notably USA, where there is a lack of strong, established legal and technical standards driven by the buying and specifier groups. Alternatively, in emerging markets, including the new entrants into the EU and the far east countries, ISO 22000 presents an important opportunity for manufacturers to show potential customers they have stepped up to the mark in terms of food safety management standards.
While much of the focus to date has been around the manufacturing supply chain, there will be also be opportunities and candidates for the use of the standard amongst the agriculture, distribution, healthcare, institutional catering, hospitality catering and leisure sectors. The key benefit of ISO 22000 is that it is not prescriptive to a given sector and that it can be adopted by all sectors of the food industry to demonstrate compliance to an international food safety management standard.
Within the UK and other EU countries a more discrete driver and benefit could be the link to co-regulation and the concept of ‘earned autonomy’. Co-regulation is emerging as an important issue in 2006 to regulators around the world and, particularly in the UK, regulators are looking for ways to reduce their enforcement burden and being able to focus their resources to better effect, eg on the persistent or wilful poor performers. This shift in emphasis would allow the proven parts of the food industry to self-regulate through a formal certification initiative. ISO 22000 could well prove to be the baseline standard that allows all sectors of the industry to demonstrate their food safety management credentials.
Where next?
For many companies it will be a time to watch and carefully evaluate, as details of the standard emerge, and are analysed and discussed throughout the whole supply chain. The key for marketing and quality executives in these companies will be in determining whether ISO 22000 is right for them. There is little doubt, though, that with the international influence and background in quality standards of ISO behind it, ISO 22000 could rapidly establish itself as an important and influential standard.
About the author
David Edwards is director of CMi Consulting. Further information contact David on e: consulting@cmi-plc.com or t: 01993 885600
Click here for IRCA’s technical, clause-by-clause analysis of the new food standard, ISO 22000
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