New version FSSC 22000 as of January 1, 2020

The new version (version 5) of FSSC 22000 was published in June 2019. From 1 January 2020 all audits will be performed against this new standard. In addition to adapting to the guidelines of the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), this publication follows the recent revision of the ISO 22000 standard, which took place on 18 June 2018, on which the FSSC 22000 lays its foundation.

What will change?

This new FSSC 22000 version uses the High Level Structure (HLS) as a basis, the common structure for all new ISO standards for management systems. This facilitates the integration of the FSSC standard with the management system standards such as ISO 9001 (quality), ISO 14001 (environment) and ISO 45001 (health and safety at the workplace).

Risk management

In the perspective of operational improvement in the field of food safety, this new revision is strongly focused on risk management. The risk-based approach, which is also common to other standards, is absolutely essential for food businesses. The purpose of the rule is to distinguish between the risk at the operational level (via the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point approach, HACCP) and the risk at the strategic level of the Management System, which is configured as business risk. This particular attention to food safety risks is aimed at exploiting the opportunities and effectiveness of the management system and preventing undesirable problems.

PDCA cycle

Another important change is the PDCA cycle: the standard now distinguishes two Plan-Do-Check-Act cycles. The first applies to the management system as a whole, while the second, included therein, relates to the operations described in clause 8, which also include the principles of HACCP defined by the Codex Alimentarius of the Commission.

More information

Would you like more information about the new version or FSSC 22000 in general? Please contact us.