The FSSC 22000 Food Safety System Certification provides a framework for effectively managing your organization’s food safety responsibilities. FSSC 22000 is fully recognized by the International Quality Services IQS and is based on existing ISO Standards. It demonstrates your company has a robust Food Safety Management System in place that meets the requirements of your customers and consumers. Already, 18.000+ organizations over 140 countries achieved FSSC 22000 certification. With currently 110+ Licensed Certification Bodies and over 1,500 auditors worldwide, our mission is to provide a trusted brand assurance platform to the consumer goods industry.
FSSC 22000 was launched as a new food safety conformity assessment program. This program fits the needs of food manufacturers and their customers to achieve a conforming food safety system based on minimum food safety requirements. The Program is based on the GFSI Global Markets Program. This GFSI program enables organizations to achieve GFSI recognized certification in 3 steps (foundation level, intermediate level and GFSI recognized certification).
The FSSC 22000 Program follows the 3 step-approach however also allows organizations to maintain at a Foundation Conformity level, by providing a full conformity assessment scheme meeting the minimum food safety requirements in accordance with the CODEX HACCP principles & General Principles of Food Hygiene and the basic level of the GFSI Global Markets Program.
What are the benefits of FSSC Program?
There is a choice for organizations to remain at the Foundation Conformity level of the program, meeting the minimum food safety requirements or to continue and apply for FSSC 22000 certification.
The Foundation Conformity level can be sufficient for small and / or low risk suppliers and satisfy the needs of their customers.
The FSSC Program approach may also be used as the first step in achieving FSSC 22000.
The program and all assessments fall under a full integrity program like FSSC 22000. This means:
– The program requirements cover several assessment delivery requirements like: qualification of assessors, standard template of the assessment report, review of assessment reports, assessment body office assessments and witness audits.
There is a free self-evaluation tool available that enables food organizations to conduct a GAP analysis against the requirements of the program.
There is a capacity building / training module available to support food organizations to develop their food safety system and to meet the requirements of the Program
The program is aligned with the CODEX HACCP Principles & General Principles of Food Hygiene and the GFSI Global Markets Program.
Which organizations can use the program?
The current scope of the Program involves manufacturers of ingredients, food products and pet food for cats and dogs. The Program is available for any food manufacturing organization in the food supply chain that can have an impact on the safety of food products, especially for organizations with less developed food safety systems and small and/or low risk suppliers.
The program provides a self-evaluation tool. This enables the organization to review whether it meets the requirements for the foundation and / or intermediate level.
The organization can request for a Foundation level assessment by a licensed Conformity Assessment Body (like IQS) to obtain a Foundation level conformity statement and for publication in the public database.
The organization can remain at the Foundation Conformity level. This requires an annual assessment against the foundation level requirements to continue the validity of the conformity statement.
Optional, the organization can choose to achieve FSSC 22000 certification. This can be done in 2 steps by first having an Intermediate level assessment one year after the Foundation level assessment and again one year later having the FSSC 22000 certification audit. Or in 1 step when the organization chooses to go directly from Foundation level conformity assessment to FSSC 22000 certification.
The organization can decide at each Foundation level assessment to continue and apply for FSSC 22000 certification.