Published 23 Mar 2023
What is ISO 22000?
ISO 22000 is a Food Safety Management System (FSMS) that sets global standards to benchmark quality, safety, and processes across food industries. It combines and supplements the core elements of ISO 9001 and HACCP to ensure food safety on the global supply chain, prevents food risks, and control food contamination.
ISO 22000:2018 Checklist
This ISO 22000 internal audit checklist is a comprehensive internal audit template you can use to assess your Food Safety Management System (FSMS). It is composed of 5 key sections - Management responsibility and resources, Planning and realization of safe products, Validation, Verification, and Improvement of the FSMS. This checklist helps evaluate if the organization has implemented, established and maintained an effective FSMS. It also ensures control over outsourced processes that may affect end product conformity. Download sample and share reports by exporting as PDF, Word, Excel or Web Link.
In this article
- What is ISO 22000 Audit?
- What is an ISO 22000 Checklist?
- What does an ISO 22000 Checklist Include?
- ISO 22000 vs FSSC 2200 vs BRC
- Benefits of Implementing ISO 22000
- ISO 22000 FAQs
- ISO 22000 Tool to Help Prepare for Audits and Certification
- Featured ISO 22000 Audit Checklists
What is ISO 22000 Audit?
ISO 2200 audit is performed by external auditors to evaluate your organization if you are eligible for certification. It is conducted to assess business compliance with:
- applicable statutory and regulatory food safety requirements;
- risk management and corrective actions;
- sanitary and safe environment programs; and
- leadership and management systems.
What is an ISO 22000 Checklist?
An ISO 22000 checklist is a tool used to prepare for, implement and assess Food Safety Management Systems (FSMS). It can be used in the last stage of the internal audit and self-assessment processes in preparation for external auditor certification.
What does an ISO 22000 Checklist Include?
To assess if your Food Safety Management System satisfied ISO 22000 standards, a ISO 22000 checklist should be able to cover the evaluation of the following clauses:
- Clause 4: Food Safety Management System
- Clause 5: Management Responsibility
- Clause 6: Resource Management
- Clause 7: Planning and Realization of Safe Products
- Clause 8: Validation, Verification and Improvement of FSMS
ISO 22000 vs FSSC 2200 vs BRC
One of the most frequently asked questions about ISO 22000 is how different it is from two other renowned food safety standards: FSSC 22000 (Food Safety System Certification) and BRC, now called BRCGS (British Retail Consortium Global Standard for Food Safety). Refer to the table below in order to spot the main differences between ISO 22000, FSSC 22000, and BRC:
ISO 22000 |
FSSC 22000 |
BRC/BRCGS |
|
|
Certification Process |
2-stage onsite audit |
2-stage onsite audit |
1-stage onsite audit |
|
Certification Approach |
Combines and supplements core elements of ISO 9001 (click here to view ISO 9001 checklist) |
Framework approach to implement a process-based FSMS |
Prescriptive on food safety procedures and guidelines (click here to view BRC requirements) |
|
Scope of Requirements |
Includes PRPs (pre-requisite programs) and a HACCP-specific food safety plan |
Expands ISO 22000 standard with specific requirements (click here to view additional requirements) |
Includes a HACCP-specific food safety plan |
|
Nonconformity (NC) Closeout / Deadline for Corrective Actions |
Within 14 days |
Within 30 days |
Within 28 days |
|
Recertification Period / Validity of Certificate |
Every 3 years with surveillance audits once a year |
Every 3 years with surveillance audits once a year |
Every 6 or 12 months, depending on the assessed grade |
|
Recognized by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Benefits of Implementing ISO 22000
ISO 22000 helps in improving organizations’ food safety performance. It is a systematic way of addressing food safety issues such as unsafe food importation, foodborne illnesses, food contamination, and insufficient food security. Implementing ISO 22000 will benefit your organization with the following:
Compliance with global regulatory requirements
ISO 22000 sets internationally-recognized food safety standards for controlling food hazards. It helps the organization to grow globally with a recognized food safety processes and prevents costly ramifications, such as fines, penalties, product recalls, or business shutdown.
Promote health and safety regulation
Health and safety regulation is paramount to any businesses. It is implemented across industries to protect and secure your consumers as well as your employees. ISO 22000 helps minimize health and safety risks such as chemical contamination, diarrhoeal diseases, food risks, and work-related incidents and injuries.
Improve food risk response rate
FSMS in place helps businesses to respond immediately to any unexpected food safety issues. It diminishes the time to investigate food safety breaches which can give businesses more time to solve the problem.
Improve business credibility and transparency
Business credibility relies on product expertise and customer feedback. ISO 22000 allows the business to showcase their food safety management systems to ensure and deliver high-quality food products and services.
Increase business development and growth
ISO 22000 helps secure business continual improvement plans on food safety systems. It is used to identify improvement needs and develop new strategies to deliver remarkable products to satisfy the consumer’s needs.
ISO 22000 FAQs
ISO 22000 provides a framework for measuring and assessing food safety risks and performance. It allows an organization’s ability to comply with industry standards related to food safety. While it is voluntary to certify for ISO 22000, it does prove to be beneficial for producers, manufacturers, regulators and retailers, and most importantly consumers. Below are some reasons why it is important to certify for ISO 22000:
The ISO 22000 standard is composed of 10 sections known as clauses. Just like other ISO management system standards, the requirements that needs to be met are clauses 4-10. Which are the following:
- Context of the organization – Define the scope of the Food Safety Management System (FSMS) and the processes and requirements needed to achieve food safety objectives.
- Leadership – Determine the top management (person or group of people) who will be responsible for demonstrating leadership and commitment to FSMS.
- Planning – Determining risks and opportunities of their activities and how they can address them.
- Support – The organization should have the appropriate resources, competence, awareness, communication and documentation to ensure that FSMS is running effectively.
- Operation – requirements for product or service should be well understood and a criteria should be in place to determine whether the organization is able to meet the necessary requirements.
- Performance Evaluation – Establish a system for monitoring and measurement processes (e.g., process performance, internal audits, management review, etc.)
- Improvement – Develop a management system that captures, manage, and resolves nonconformities for continuous improvement.
ISO 22000 Tool to Help Prepare for Audits and Certification
Achieving ISO 22000 certification requires significant documentation, recordkeeping, and organization-wide communication efforts. Traditional pen and paper are burdensome for auditors in re-entering gathered data on a computer, and manually hand over audit reports. Choosing the right technology can ensure a smooth implementation and streamline processes in resolving food safety risks. Using SafetyCulture (formerly iAuditor), a mobile-ready inspection app, you can:
- Document significant information using a handheld device
- Capture and annotate photo evidence of hazards and non-compliant items
- Attach detailed notes of observations and recommendations
- Assign corrective actions for immediate rectifications of food safety risks
- Save and secure gathered information in the cloud. View a sample report of ISO 22000 PDF here.
- Generate, share, and access real-time reports within the organization
- Schedule ISO 22000 audits to reinforce safety practices and proactively discover food safety issues.
- Analyze internal audit results and observe safety trends.
Download from this free collection of ISO 22000 PDF and digital checklists converted into digital mobile checklists using SafetyCulture. These checklists can be used to help prepare for and identify gaps for achieving ISO 22000 certification. In addition, we have included HACCP and GMP templates you can use as part of implementing your overall FSMS with our internal audit software.
Featured ISO 22000 Audit Checklists
ISO 22000 Audit Checklist
This general ISO 22000 preparation checklist can be used to identify any keys gaps prior to ISO 22000 certification audit. This checklist helps identify areas of improvement on processes and procedures and checks if customer’s product requirements were researched on, established, and implemented.
ISO 22000 Checklist
This ISO 22000 checklist is a succinct version of the comprehensive ISO 22000 internal audit checklist. Use it to assess if your company has a clear and well-documented food safety manual and policy. This checklist helps evaluate if the workplace follows and maintains the established food safety management system. Conduct inspections using SafetyCulture to record data and document specifications, procedures, corrective actions, and product analysis which will help improve your company’s efficiency and food safety.
ISO 22000:2005 Compliance Audit
Use this ISO 22000:2005 compliance audit to conduct assessments of hygienic standards in all aspects of food handling procedures carried out in operations. Use SafetyCulture to ensure all relevant corrective actions are carried out and documented.
ISO 22000:2018 Compliance Audit
This ISO 22000:2018 compliance audit is the revised version of ISO 22000:2005. It is created to guide internal auditors to prepare the organization for ISO certification.
HACCP Templates
ISO 22000 incorporates the widely used and proven HACCP principles in food manufacturing. This collection of HACCP templates can help you to identify biological, chemical, or physical hazards and evaluate the Critical Control Points (CCP) in food handling and processing. Use SafetyCulture to document all significant information and generate reports while on site.
Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) Food Audit Checklist
ISO 22000 requires effective prerequisite programs to ensure a sanitary working environment. This Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) Food Audit Checklist can help improve your procedures when handling raw or processed products to avoid adulteration or contamination. This checklist also evaluates if facilities and equipment are properly maintained and sanitized, and all personnel were trained to practice good personal hygiene. Use SafetyCulture on your mobile device to take photo evidences to document non-adherence to sanitation and assign corrective actions to appropriate persons even while conducting audits.
SafetyCulture Content Specialist
Jona Tarlengco
