Why ISO 22000 Food Safety Management Standard?

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has developed ISO 22000:2005 as a way to systematically ensure safety and control in all links of the food chain. Organizations implementing ISO 22000, which includes the principles of the Codex HACCP system, can now cover the key requirements of the various global standards by using a single document.
A generic food safety management standard, ISO 22000 can be used by any organization directly or indirectly involved in the food chain. The scope of application for ISO 22000 / HACCP system covers the whole food chain from primary production till point of consumption and includes:
 Primary procedures (Agriculture, Aquaculture, Horticulture, Dairy etc.)
 Food processors and manufactures
 Retailers, storage facilities and transporters.
 Hospitality sector – Hotels, Restaurants, Catering institutes

The standard ensures food safety “from farm to fork” based on these generally recognized key elements:

 Interactive communication: An innovative and essential factor for risk management. A structured informative flow in every direction, internally and externally. It guarantees effective control of hazards.
 System management: The control of the interaction between the system’s elements guarantees efficiency and the effectiveness of the system.
 Prerequisite programs: Good Manufacturing Practices, Good Hygiene Practices, Good Agricultural Practices, including e.g. equipment and buildings maintenance programs and procedures, and pest control programs, are the pillars on which a HACCP (Hazard Analysis & Critical Control Points) system is based.
 HACCP principles: The basic methodology to plan safe production processes which are appropriate for every individual company, without unnecessary bureaucracy.

Benefits of ISO 22000

The ISO 22000 Standard enables your organization to:
 Build and operate a food safety management system within a well-defined and clear framework that is flexible to your business needs and expectations
 Understand what the actual risks are for the consumers and for your company
 Provide a tool for food safety performance improvement and the means to monitor and measure food safety performance effectively
 Better meet food safety legal compliance and corporate requirements
 provide an effective means for your company to communicate with stakeholders and other interested parties.
 Demonstrate food safety commitment under corporate governance, corporate responsibility, and financial reporting requirements.
 make decisions easy based on factual analysis and knowledge.
 Ensure all requirements of consumers about food safety are met
 Export easily because it is recognized on the international level.
 Increase Job productivity and employee satisfaction.
 Ensure employees become conscious about hygiene and food safety,
 Decrease loss of products, returns and
 Expand market access
 Reduce cost of sales
 Lower the risk of liability
 It is trusted system which is confirmed by FAO / WHO.
 Reinforce a responsible and well-managed reputation with customers, stakeholders, and communities


The ISO 22000 Standard enables your staff to:

 Improve overall performance
 Improve Work environment
 Adjusting to rules are provided.
 Product safety problems are prevented.
 Notice potential hazards before occurring.
 Develop efficiency controls systematically.
 Provide tools to ensure health & safety is everyone's responsibility
 Integrate safety into all aspects of your business
 Improve performance through policies and procedures
 Reduce work-related accidents and ill-health and the costs associated with them
 Improve performance through heightened employee morale and adherence to policies and procedures

The Proven benefits of OHSAS 18001

OHSAS 18001 is a consensus standard developed in 1999 by an independent group of national standards bodies and certification bodies (registrars). OHSAS stands for Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series. OHSAS 18001 is structured the same way as ISO 14001, the environmental management system standard, and has essentially the same elements. It was specifically developed to be compatible with ISO 9001, the quality management system standard, and ISO 14001 to allow companies to develop and register integrated quality, environmental and occupational safety and health management systems

Benefits of OHSAS 18001 for organizations
Like registration to ISO 9001 and ISO 14001, registration to OHSAS 18001 can offer companies a number of benefits.

• OHSAS 18001 certification has a positive impact on businesses of all sizes and in all industry sectors.
• OSHMS (Occupational Safety & Health Management System) applies to organizations seeking to prioritize occupational safety and health practices and methods;
• Through OSHMS allows organizations to apply OHSAS 18001 2007, Loss Control or ILO-OSH, Z-10, and other recognizable systems as these are internationally recognize (as occupational health and safety management systems best practices).
• OHSAS can provide a basis for organizations to implement health and safety through reduction of risks by identifying and acting on work relating hazards.
• Organizations that have implemented a system to improve the management of health and safety practices have reported reduced improved employee safety awareness, fewer accidents and reduced costs.
• OHSAS 18001 provides a structure companies can use to integrate quality, environmental and safety and health program management for increased management efficiencies.
• Strong interconnection between environmental and safety and health programs in areas such as emergency planning and risk assessment.
• Far from being a marketing tool, the real and proven benefits of certification are plain to see.
• The fundamentals of certification will make your company more efficient and increase your reputation and competitive edge.
• Effective safety and health programs earn positive returns on their health and safety investment
• In many industries it has already become a basic requirement for doing business.
• Increased safety awareness, efficiency, a real strengthening of your position in the marketplace and increased revenue are direct results of achieving certification.
• Reduce liability, worker's compensation and health costs;
• Reduced risk of citations/penalties

Benefits of OHSAS 18001 for staff
• EHS managers can’t be every place at the same time -
• Provides tools to ensure health & safety is everyone's responsibility
• Integrate health and safety into all aspects of your business
• Improved performance through policies and procedures
• Reducing work-related accidents and ill-health and the costs associated with them
• Improving performance through heightened employee morale and adherence to policies and procedures
• Reinforcing a responsible and well-managed reputation with customers, stakeholders, and communities
• OHSAS 18001 provides a structure to incorporate health and safety into the business
• Includes health and safety impacts as part of the business process and planning activities and achieving the goal of an accident-free workplace
• Reduce workplace injuries; accidents and illness
• Decrease loss of work hours; and

key areas are addressed by OHSAS 18001

 Planning for hazard identification, risk assessment and risk control
 OHSAS management program
 Structure and responsibility
 Training, awareness and competence
 Consultation and communication
 Operational control
 Emergency preparedness and response
 Performance measuring, monitoring and improvement

What can you expect in return for your investment in an ISO 9001 Quality Management System (QMS)?

ISO is not a legislating or enforcement industry. ISO does not legislate or enforce regulations. It is formed of technical committees of experts from industry, science, governmental and private organizations who work together to develop international standards. Any ISO certification merely ensures that a management system includes all the requirements in processes and information organization. Feedback from ISO 9001 Registered companies shows what you can expect as the payoff from all of your hard work.
The aim of ISO is to prepare recognized ISO management standards which can be followed internationally and help to remove these obstacles in front of trade, climate and safety. The International Organization for Standardization, is a network of institutions, that seek to establish standards for quality and requirements of materials, products, processes, the organization of information and management systems, with the idea that any organization can conduct business with any other, in a global market
Because of the responsibilities called out in the ISO 9001 Standard, organizations often see an increased involvement of top management with regards to the Quality Management System.
• Planning : Top management role start with the setting of the Quality Policy and Quality Goals and Objectives.
• Implementation: with providing required resources for the implementation stage
• Monitoring : with Management Review looking at data from the QMS, and taking actions to make sure that Quality Goals are met
• Continually : New Goals are set, and continual improvement is achieved.
With the QMS in place and working for you, the organization is focused towards the Quality Goals.
• Compliance with all regulations and rules related.
• Increasing of operation image in market (prestige), can act as a differentiating factor if your competitor is not ISO compliant.
• Certification benefit will help your business to compete and market your products globally, increase in customer satisfaction, reduction in wastages and reprocessing
• Reducing operational times, determining the process owners and thereby specifying their responsibilities, supplier selection and evaluation, etc.
• Management is provided with data on a continual basis and able to see progress or lack of progress towards goals and take appropriate action.
• The organized, scheduled process of conducting Management Review ensures that this evaluation takes place.
• It provides the mechanism of reviewing goals and performance against goals on a scheduled basis, and for taking action based on the evaluation.
• It standardizes the way the businesses are run. Processes will be written, documents will be organized and the basic functions will be streamlined.
• Increased productivity results from the initial evaluation and improvement of processes that occurs during the implementation process and from improved training and qualification of employees.
• Better documentation or control of processes leads to consistency in performance, and less scrap and rework.
• Managers experience fewer late night troubleshooting calls; employees have more information for troubleshooting problems on their own.
Also with the QMS in place and working for you, Customer satisfaction increases are seen as Goals and Objectives take the customer needs into account.
• Customer needs are better understood as customer feedback is sought, received and analyzed.
• Goals and objectives are adjusted based on the information and the organization becomes more customer driven.
• Standardization for customer service and the way customer requirements are met
• As goals focus on the customer, the organization spends less time focusing on individual goals of departments and more time working together to meet customer needs.
• Regular internal audits can also reduce disruptions from outside customer audits which may become costly problems

Developing an effective policies and procedures manual.

A well-written, comprehensive policy and procedure manual is the most effective management tool--and the most neglected one.

There are plenty of good excuses to avoid producing a comprehensive manual: too little time and too much work; uncertainty about the manual's contents or the difference between policy and procedure; unfamiliarity with the how-to of preparing the manual; or an unwillingness to put too much in writing. Underlying all these reasons is the failure to recognize just how vital such a document really is.

This article will explain each step in preparing an effective manual. But first let's examine why your business urgently needs one. Done the right way, written policies and procedures:

 promote teamwork and improve human relations.
 promote clarity, consistency, and continuity of performance and management decisions.
 establish approved, measurable standards of performance for competent practice.
 provide a tool for orientation and training of new employees and supervisors.
 help managers handle problems faster and with greater freedom by defining the parameters of their responsibility.
 promote proper delegation and define limits of authority and levels of responsibility.
 save supervisors time in answering questions and making decisions, and free them for planning and development.
 promote better employee understanding and retention.
 serve as a source document for inspection by regulatory and accrediting agencies.
 furnish a basis for orderly change, through additions, changes, or deletions.

To sum up, a good policy and procedure program clarifies management directives, reduces uncertainties, and saves time and energy. With these advantages in mind, we will define some key terms. The manual has five components: objectives (or purpose), policies, procedures, methods, and rules.

An objective is a broad purpose or aim. Objectives form the basis from which all policies are derived.

A policy shows how the organization will achieve its objectives. It is a guide to thinking and action, not a descriptive statement or a list of tasks. Policies are general statements covering all areas of the institution, although certain ones have a greater impact for some departments than others.

A procedure describes what is to be done--a detailed sequence of activities showing how a policy applies to a particular situation.

A method breaks down the procedure and tells how to accomplish it, one task at a time.

Rules establish procedures to govern or limit the activities outlined in the method. They also control conduct and indicate consequences if policies are not followed.

It's easy to understand these definitions when you translate them from theory into actual practice.

Preparing a manual may seem overwhelming, especially if you're starting from scratch. A logical plan makes it much simpler. The following nine-step sequence is a basic outline of the process.

1. List topics for which the business needs policies. What kinds of policies must you consider?
There are originated policies, which come from top management as part of the institution's operational goals. Standard or routine policies reflect actual practices or systems established by precedent. Imposed policies, such as government regulations or legal requirements, originate outside the institution. Appealed policies arise from the department's need to cope with exceptional problems on a case-by-case basis.

2. Develop a table of contents to establish your topic areas.
These topics fall into three broad classifications: management, operational policies, and personnel policies.

3. Now draft the policies. This is the most tedious part of the job.
Each institution has its own policy-writing format, Solicit input from department supervisors on their sections' concerns.
Remember policies are general statements intended to channel employee decision making. They must be clear, comprehensive, flexible, and subject to revision; they must be fully understood by those who will apply them; and they should be written in simple, concise language. They cannot be changed by word of mouth. They should begin with the phrase, "It is the policy of Anywhere to . . . ." And they should reflect your institution's overall goals and objectives.

4. Review the draft to insure compliance with institutional philosophy, regulatory requirements, and compatibility with other department policies.

5. Circulate the draft policies to supervisors for review and feedback.

6. Draft appropriate procedures, methods, and rules for the policies, again with the participation of supervisors. When writing procedures, keep these points in mind:
Procedures tell what must be done to carry out policy, not how it must be done. The question of how is answered by the methods.
Procedures are more specific than policies. They are written as a series of steps. (A method describes how to accomplish just one step.) Each step usually begins with an active verb in the present tense. Avoid negative statements.

7. Circulate drafts to supervisors for final comment.

8. Finalize policies and have them approved by appropriate administrative personnel.

9. Compile policies in a loose-leaf notebook to allow for revisions and additions.
Introduce the manual to all staff in a series of meetings that explain its implications and use. Make it clear that all employees will be held accountable for reading the manual and complying with its contents.

Now that your policy manual is complete, don't think the job is over. The manual is a constantly evolving document that must reflect the changing reality of the institution. As new problems arise, precedents may be set or new policies may be identified. It's your responsibility to make prompt and accurate amendments.

Review all policies annually and update them as necessary. When a new policy is announced by memo or other directive, post the notice on the bulletin board and introduce it at a meeting. When changes are finalized, post them and insert them in the manual.

Getting started is the hardest part of developing a policy manual. Once you are past the hurdle of developing a table of contents and writing the first policy, it becomes far less formidable. And the work pays off, because the policy manual is the hub of all operations. It influences costs, productivity, efficiency, employee performance and morale, interdepartmental relations, and service delivery.

In other words, a solidly designed and well-written set of policies and procedures does more than make you look like an effective manager. It helps you become one.