ISO 22000 Certification
ISO 22000 sets the requirements for a food safety management system built on HACCP principles and prerequisite programmes.
- Standard
- ISO 22000:2018
- Indicative timeline
- 10-16 weeks, depending on scope and readiness
- Discipline
- ISO Standards
- Assessment type
- Independent third-party assessment
The standard
Overview
ISO 22000:2018 is the international standard for food safety management systems. It combines the common ISO clause structure with HACCP principles and prerequisite programmes, and applies to any organisation in the food chain: growers, processors, packers, storage and transport operators, caterers, retailers, and suppliers of ingredients, packaging and equipment. Hazards are controlled through prerequisite programmes, operational prerequisite programmes and critical control points, each with defined limits, monitoring and action when control is lost.
Certification shows that a food safety team, a hazard analysis, verified controls, traceability and withdrawal arrangements exist and are in use. Retail and foodservice buyers often ask for evidence of this kind before listing a supplier. It also provides documented evidence for local authority inspection, alongside the legal duty to have procedures based on HACCP principles.
UKCert reviews your hazard analysis, prerequisite programmes and validation evidence, then audits the site during production and tests traceability by exercise.
Who this is for
- Food and drink manufacturers and processors
- Bakeries, dairies, meat and produce packers
- Cold storage, distribution and food transport operators
- Contract caterers and central production kitchens
- Ingredient, packaging and equipment suppliers to the food chain
What it gives you
Why organisations certify
What a certified ISO 22000:2018 assessment gives you once the certificate is issued.
Structured hazard control
Hazard analysis separates prerequisite programmes, operational PRPs and critical control points, so monitoring effort is concentrated where loss of control causes harm.
Customer audit readiness
Buyers ask consistent questions about traceability, allergens and corrective action. A certified system holds those answers as records rather than recollection.
Traceability tested
One step back and one step forward traceability is documented and exercised, so withdrawal and recall decisions can be made quickly and with defensible records.
Allergen and contamination control
Segregation, cleaning validation, labelling checks and foreign body controls are specified and verified, which is where a large share of product withdrawals begins.
Regulatory evidence
Food law requires HACCP-based procedures. The system documents hazard analysis, monitoring and verification in a form that inspectors and enforcement officers recognise.
Fewer duplicate audits
One assessed system covers ground that customers otherwise audit separately, which can reduce the number of second-party visits a site has to host each year.
Scope
What the assessment covers
The areas an assessor works through. Your final scope is confirmed in writing before any audit is booked.
- Food safety team and defined scope
- Prerequisite programmes (PRPs)
- Process flow diagrams and hazard analysis
- Critical control points with critical limits
- Operational prerequisite programmes (OPRPs)
- Validation, verification and monitoring records
- Traceability, withdrawal and recall procedures
- Emergency preparedness and product release control
How it runs
The assessment, stage by stage
From first enquiry to certificate. Each stage is agreed with you before it starts.
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Scope and quotation
We confirm product categories, processes, sites, shift patterns and seasonality. Audit duration follows from the number of HACCP studies and the processes in scope, and the quotation follows from that.
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Documentation and PRP review
An optional review of your hazard analysis, prerequisite programmes, flow diagrams and validation evidence before formal assessment, identifying gaps in monitoring, verification or traceability records.
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Stage 1 assessment
We examine scope, flow diagrams, hazard analysis, the hazard control plan, prerequisite programmes and mandatory records, and confirm that internal audit and management review are complete.
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Stage 2 assessment
An on-site audit during production. We follow product through the process, check CCP and OPRP monitoring records, calibration, cleaning and allergen controls, and run a traceability exercise.
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Certification decision
Findings are closed with corrective action, evidence and root cause where food safety is affected. An independent reviewer then decides on certification for a three-year cycle.
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Surveillance and renewal
Surveillance audits are carried out while production is running and cover changes to the hazard analysis, verification results and complaints. Recertification takes place before the certificate expires.
Questions
ISO 22000:2018 — frequently asked
Anything here that does not cover your situation, put it to an assessor rather than guessing at it.
Same discipline
Other schemes in ISO Standards
Certifying against more than one standard?
Where you hold several standards, shared clauses are assessed once in a combined visit rather than as separate audits. Talk it through with an assessor before you decide what ISO 22000:2018 should sit alongside.