ISO Working on Energy Management Standard

The future ISO 50001 will establish an energy management framework for industrial plants, or entire organizations.


ISO: Geneva) -- The first meeting of ISO’s new project committee PC 242, which is to develop an international standard on energy management, was held Sept. 8-10, 2008 in Washington, D.C.

The future ISO 50001 will establish an energy management framework for industrial plants, commercial facilities, or entire organizations. Targeting broad applicability across national economic sectors, the standard could influence up to 60 percent of the world’s energy.

The meeting was attended by delegates from the ISO national member bodies of 25 countries, coming from all regions of the world, as well as representation from the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), a liaison to PC 242. All participating countries have existing energy management activities and a strong interest in developing a harmonized solution at the international level.

As part of the proceedings, delegates described their various initiatives in detail. A presentation was given by UNIDO on preparatory work the organization has carried out to support the ISO process through researching energy management needs in developing countries.

This gave PC 242 an insight into the different policies and situations around the world that need to be taken into account in the development of a globally relevant international standard for energy management.

Excellent progress was made in the technical discussions, and a first working draft was created. A major point of discussion was the need to ensure compatibility with the existing suite of ISO management system standards. The committee made a key decision to base this draft on common elements found in all of ISO’s management system standards.

This ensures maximum compatibility with key standards such as ISO 9001 for quality management and ISO 14001 for environmental management.

The project committee is fully committed to an ambitious schedule and aims to have ISO 50001 ready for publication by the end of 2010.

"This first meeting of PC 242 marks the launch of a new global approach to systematically address energy performance in organizations –- pragmatically addressing energy efficiency and related climate change impacts," says ISO Secretary-General Alan Bryden. "It is fully in line with and supportive of the global mobilization on these major challenges, and with the IEA-ISO position paper on the contribution of International Standards."

For more information, visit www.iso.org.

source: qualitydigest.com

SQF, Certification Levels

The SQF Codes: Three certification levels

Level 1
Food Safety Fundamentals. Indicates that prerequisite programs and fundamental food safety controls have been implemented to provide a sound foundation for the further development of the Organization’s management system.

Level 2
Food Safety Plans Incorporates all Level 1 system requirements and indicates that a food safety risk analysis of the product and its associated process has been completed to identify the hazards and the actions taken to eliminate, prevent or reduce their occurrence.

Level 3
Comprehensive Food Safety and Quality Management Systems Development. Incorporates all Level 1 and Level 2 system requirements and indicates that a food quality risk assessment of the product and its associated process have been completed, that the actions taken to prevent the incidence of poor quality and the remaining quality management systems procedures have been implemented.

* The Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) is coordinated by CIES - The Food Business Forum, launched May 2000.

Safe Quality Food (SQF)

•The Safe Quality Food (SQF) is a quality program recognized by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI)*, an organization representing over 70% of food retail revenue worldwide. The Food Marketing Institute (FMI) manages the SQF program.
•Currently, there are two SQF Codes: SQF 1000 for farmers / producers and SQF 2000 for food manufacturers and distributors.
•SQF 1000 and 2000 Codes are based on the principles of Hazard Analysis at Critical Control Point (HACCP), Codex, ISO and Quality Management Systems.
•SQF Certification to these codes gives assurance to retailers that the food from suppliers has been produced, prepared and handled according to internationally recognized standards.

Defending the food chain

Created in response to the complicated nature of the global food industry and the mass of national regulations and standards that sprang up to try and police it, ISO 22000 has now been adopted by organizations from numerous food industry sectors across the globe. It provides a global management system framework for certification that crosses borders as easily as the produce whose safety it strives to ensure, while widening the scope of food safety management to support industries and smaller organizations that might not have had the resources or motivation to seek certification in the past.

As an evolution of other standards, ISO 22000:2005 Food safety management systems. Requirements for any organization in the food chain uses generally recognised methods of food safety management such as interactive communication across the food chain, system management, control of hazards through prerequisite programmes and HACCP plans, and continual improvement and updating of the management system.

In July 2006, a survey of 44 national standards bodies, found that only five countries had yet to adopt ISO 22000 as a national standard. Of these, Canada was waiting to assess the feedback of a wide group of stakeholders due to report back that same month before making a decision to go ahead, while the rest - Japan, Qatar, Senegal and Trinidad & Tobago - were yet to make a decision on adoption. Half of the countries surveyed said they expected to have begun certifying early adopters of the standard before the end of this year.

One such early adopter of ISO 22000 as a food safety management system is confectioner Henri Charpentier, which became one of the first food companies in Japan to achieve ISO 22000 certification earlier this year. The company, famous in Japan for its "fancies" and Madeline cakes, upgraded from its existing HACCP-based food safety system to ISO 22000 as part of a general programme of improvement rather than in reaction to a particular incident or catalyst such as a customer requirement.

The firm, which used BSI Management Systems Japan to perform its audit and certification - one of the first independent certification bodies to be able to deliver ISO 22000 certification in the country - is now on a path of continuous improvement in their food safety programme. Because ISO 22000 governs food safety rather than quality, which remains very much in the hands of the producer as a key element in its business strategy, Henri Charpentier can now add food safety to its other unique selling points of great taste and design.

"We went through the assessment by BSI Japan believing that they represent our customers," says Koji Yoshida, assistant manager of Henri Charpentier's Operational Audit Office and a member of the ISO 22000 Steering Task Force. "Therefore, we welcomed any observations or comments for improvement from BSI, as those comments are easier for us to absorb and because observations by BSI Japan are more persuasive than those made by people within our company."

Compatible ingredients

While ISO 22000 has strong credentials as a stand-alone standard, it is also designed to be fully integrated with ISO 9001:2000. This means that, as well as cutting down on administration costs by minimizing overlap between the two, ISO 22000 is able to build on the familiarity earned by the popular ISO 9000 series to help food businesses expand their commitment to standards and continuous improvement in food safety.

This certainly proved to be the case with Hungarian food processor Moraprizma Szovetkezet, which was running ISO 9001 and HACCP at its plant in the Moraholm region of Hungary before deciding to become one of the first organizations in the country to register to ISO 22000.

The company, which was established to process vegetable and fruit crops in the region, produces fresh salad mix and vegetable pieces in various forms of packaging. Customers include the hospitality industry and retailers such as Tesco - the world's third largest supermarket and retail chain - and French hypermarket group Cora.

The company chose ISO 22000 because of the ease with which it consolidates ISO 9001 and HACCP, its certification formula and the fact it is an internationally recognized standard for food safety management.

International recognition also proved a vital ingredient for Hong Kong's Health Affluence Group. A subsidiary of Imperial Bird's Nest International, one of Hong Kong's leading importers of bird's nests and a wholesaler and retailer with operations in Hong Kong and Canada, Health Affluence manufactures a range of instant bird's nest soup products and has already gained ISO 22000 certification at its Yuen Long plant in Hong Kong.

Certification was attained after BSI carried out an assessment to compare Health Affluence's existing food safety management systems against ISO 22000. Following this, BSI conducted a three-day audit to verify the group's systems and controls against the standard.

A wider menu

One breakthrough for ISO 22000 is that it provides support firms - be they in the growing packaging, storage or transportation worlds - with a means to gain certification. This was one deciding factor for UK packaging firm Bemis Swansea Ltd, which achieved its ISO 22000 certification through BSI earlier this year. Bemis is one of the largest packaging companies in the Americas and Mike Bird, plant manager at its Swansea UK site, underlines the benefits he sees ISO 22000 certification will bring to his business going forward: "This significant accomplishment demonstrates our company's continued commitment to deliver products that meet customer requirements. The certification will now extend the scope of our current food safety management system by enabling us to demonstrate the result of our activities to customers, suppliers and other interested organizations worldwide."

As an addition to the portfolio of food standards already available, ISO 22000 will hopefully minimize the risk faced by the public to the infrequent yet serious contamination scandals that pose such a threat to the industry. Its take-up suggests that, when it comes to managing food safety, many companies understand the important role that ISO 22000 plays.

Source: businessstandards.com/Articles