Early adopters like ISO 22000 food safety standard

Companies among the first in the world to implement ISO 22000 are underlining the benefits of the new international standard for ensuring safe food supply chains.

Companies among the first in the world to implement ISO 22000 are underlining the benefits of the new international standard for ensuring safe food supply chains.

Early adopters have provided favourable comments and expressed positive reactions to the standard in response to an informal enquiry from ISO Central Secretariat to gauge the worldwide reaction to ISO 22000, which ISO published on 1 September 2005.

At least 29 countries around the world are already reporting various ISO 22000 deployment activities.

An edited selection of the replies follows with, firstly, comments from companies that have already been certified to ISO 22000 and, secondly a brief overview of worldwide developments.

* Australia, Vinpac International - wine bottling and packaging.

Ben Bowering, quality, health, safety and environmental manager: "This standard has the potential to turn the onerous task of meeting multiple, often duplicated or even contradictory requirements from various different safety and quality guidelines into one meaningful system.

"I believe that in terms of its international recognition, its rigour and its capacity to improve safety along the entire food chain, the ISO 22000 standard is exactly that - something that will offer benefits for everyone concerned".

* Belgium, Hedelab - manufacturer of dietary supplements.

Gilles Gernaey, scientific director: "For us, the objective of ISO 22000 is to allow the harmonised implementation, no matter what the country or product concerned, of the HACCP (hazard analysis and critical control points) method, recognised by experts as the best tool currently available for guaranteeing food safety for the consumer.

"Since the significant increase of various food safety crises, certain countries, as well as certain food industry groups and companies, have established their own safety standards, resulting in more than 20 co-existing standards.

"Thanks to the international consensus which led to the development of ISO 22000, certification to this standard is destined to become the international benchmark for food quality".

* Finland, Caternet - fresh food logistic services.

Michael Weckstrom, managing director, and Jaakko Repo, quality manager: "All our operations are now based on ISO 22000 and on the ISO 9001:2000 quality management standard.

"ISO 22000 is a useful additional tool to the quality management system that emphasises the organisation's responsibility for food safety, increases the efficiency of our previous system and improves our working methods.

"It has already drawn interest among our customers.

"In the future, we see ISO 22000 as bringing credibility to the company image and improving our competitiveness".

* France, Veolia Eau Ile-de-France/Centre - manages public utilities involved in the production and supply of drinking water and in the collection and treatment of waste water.

The organisation is certified to ISO 22000 for the production and supply of drinking water.

Gabrielle Coat - quality-environment manager: "Veolia Eau Ile-de-France/Centre produces and supplies drinking water.

"ISO 22000 provides an answer to its core concern: to control all sanitary hazards.

"Before starting our approach towards ISO 22000 certification, we had already introduced a HACCP system and an ISO 9001:2000 certified quality management system.

"Once it became available, ISO 22000 was able to merge seamlessly with the two existing systems.

"Today, ISO 22000 enables us to identify the risks associated with our activity, to foresee them and to more effectively contain any emergency that may occur.

"For a group like Veolia Eau, this certification means that we can guarantee the reliability of our organisation, not only to our local customers - community groups, for instance - but also at international level".

* Spain, Angulas Aguinaga - manufacturer of food products based on fish and surimi.

Javier Canada Millan, director of quality and research and development: "In 2005, Angulas Aguinaga received the prize for innovation from the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries of the Spanish Government.

"The main reason why we implemented ISO 22000 is that it deals specifically with food safety and because it is a standard with international reach, developed by a scientifically based committee with broad experience in the field of food and public health.

"The deployment of this standard required us to strengthen our existing HACCP team, enabled us to develop a better structure and a better definition of our corporate quality policy in relation to food safety and, as a result of this implementation, we have been able to move forward significantly in the study of Critical Control Points (CCP)".

* Switzerland, Chocolats and Cacaos Favarger - chocolate manufacturer.

Philippe de Korodi, general manager: "Favarger recognises that the quality and safety of its products are the condition for its long-term growth.

"Customers increasingly need 'trust marks' to make decisions in the face of complex choices.

"In addition to ISO 9001:2000, ISO 22000 brings the necessary focus on safety.

"The international and 'neutral' nature of ISO 22000 certification makes it an attractive and economically sound management target compared to other regional food safety standards.

"For an SME like Favarger, the cost and energy required to obtain an ISO 22000 certification cannot be taken for granted.

"However, the benefits far outweigh the investment".

* United Kingdom, Crown Speciality Packaging - manufacturer of decorative tinplate containers for food, promotional and pharmaceutical products.

James Barnett, plant manager: "Crown Carlisle is very proud to have achieved another major milestone with the attainment of our ISO 22000 food safety management certification.

"This significant accomplishment underscores the company's continued commitment to deliver best-in-class service and quality to our clients.

"Companies within our sector are increasingly recognizing the important role of accredited systems in order to protect consumers and enhance the manufacture of product to meet more demanding standards.

"The certification enables us to demonstrate the result of our activities to customers, suppliers and other interested organisations".

* United Kingdom, The Wrigley Company - manufacturer of chewing and bubblegum, and confectionery.

Alan Richards, production director: "Food safety standards are of the highest priority for the Wrigley Company.

"We want to be 100 per cent confident at all times that we have the very best systems in place to ensure that nothing could leave our factory that could be harmful to the consumer.

"After extensively reviewing existing standards and the new ISO 22000, we were convinced that this new standard would help us 'raise the bar' to an even higher level.

"The benefit of ISO 22000 is that it audits and verifies our food safety management system according to HACCP principles and that it integrates food safety management with our ISO 9001:2000 quality management system.

"We have combined ISO 22000 with our own internal standards and this has not only provided a robust guideline for our food safety management system, but it has also allowed us to promote a culture of continuous improvement in our manufacturing practices".

* ISO 22000 worldwide overview.

Only three months after the publication of the ISO 22000, activities at various stages related to the deployment of the standard have already been reported in at least 29 countries.

These activities range from the translation and adoption of ISO 22000 as a national standard to the putting into place of accreditation and certification systems, to promotion, training, implementation, certification, preparation for certification audits, or to waiting for certificates to be issued following successful audits.

One or several of such activities are reported to be in process in the following countries: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Cuba, Estonia, Finland, France, India, Israel, Jordan, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Morocco, Philippines, Serbia and Montenegro, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Thailand, Ukraine, United Arab Republic, United Kingdom, USA, Yugoslavia.

Note: ISO itself does not perform certification to its standards, does not issue certificates and does not control certification performed independently of ISO by other organizations.

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