A revolution in international food safety standards?

Safety in the food supply chain is of paramount importance. And yet there hasn't been a single, universally accepted, end-to-end food safety standards-based solution in place: until now. Oliver Cann finds out more.

Early in 2009, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the US announced that it had found widespread salmonella contamination at a large peanut processing plant based in Georgia. Despite the fact that the plant itself was not a major player, its products - in particular, its peanut paste - tainted an entire supply chain.

According to the FDA, as of April 2009, more than 2,100 products in 17 categories had been recalled by more than 200 companies, and the list continues to grow. The plant at the heart of the incident has filed for bankruptcy and the salmonella outbreak itself struck more than 500 people, extending as far as Canada. Of those affected, at least six were reported to have died.

Strengthening the chain

The food supply chain on which we all rely extends farther and goes deeper than ever before. For example, a piece of fruit grown in Africa can be on grocery store shelves in Europe within 24 hours of harvest. Coffee from Asia wends its way to shops across Europe. Lamb from New Zealand is enjoyed across the UK and North America.

With such a far-reaching supply chain in place, carrying such an essential product as food, having the proper security and safety measures in place is vital.

A robust, independently verified food management system could make a real difference by improving a food organization's flexibility, readiness and ultimate viability in the face of an ever-changing risk environment. This is particularly true when set against the backdrop of current economic pressures, when there is a temptation to cut corners. Under the circumstances, the need for food safety has never been greater. And yet, to this day, there has not been a unified, internationally accepted food safety management solution in place to do the job.

Good progress has been made by the industry to date. It was concern over potential risks in the food supply chain that prompted the creation of a number of early food safety sector initiatives and standards, including HACCP and the BRC and IFS retailer driven food manufacturing standards along with EuroGAP for the pre-farm gate sector. But it was not until the publication of international food safety management system standard ISO 22000 in 2005 that there was a single standard covering the entire food supply chain.

Adoption of ISO 22000 throughout all sectors of the industry has been relatively poor. In particular, in the highly influential food manufacturing sector, it quickly became apparent that ISO 22000 had limitations. From a technical perspective, the requirements on prerequisite programmes (PRPs) were not deemed to be specific enough to meet stakeholder needs.

Another limitation revolved around the position of the internationally recognized organization, the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI). Without the appropriate PRPs and scheme ownership, ISO 22000 could not be benchmarked by the GFSI and given the same approval as other standards.

"The food safety landscape is very straight-forward," says Steve Mould, worldwide quality management systems manager at Kraft Foods. "Food safety standards need to be recognized by the GFSI but ISO 22000 could not on its own. ISO 22000 gives lists of PRP topics to consider, but because it covers the whole of the food industry, it does not include PRPs for each step: otherwise it would need to be the size of an encyclopaedia. Something else was needed to fill the gap and give ISO 22000 the support that was needed."


PAS 220: supporting ISO 22000


Publicly Available Specification (PAS) 220 is a new complementary standard to ISO 22000. It has been designed to address the technical limitations around PRPs in ISO 22000 for the food manufacturing sector.

PAS 220:2008 Prerequisite programmes on food safety for food manufacturing was developed by BSI and sponsored by Danone, Kraft Foods, Nestlé and Unilever through the Confederation of the Food and Drink Industries of the EU (CIAA). Other stakeholders involved in the development process included representatives from the Food and Drink Federation (FDF), McDonald's, General Mills Europe, and certification bodies.


FSSC 22000: the icing on the cake


FSSC 22000 (Food Safety System Certification 22000) is a new global food safety scheme which brings together ISO 22000 and PAS 220 certification for the food manufacturing industry.

"While existing schemes have a reasonable consistency of requirements, there was no true consistency of auditing and certification," says Mould, who was also the technical author of PAS 220. "Food safety schemes on the market today tend to be owned by stakeholders in the food supply chain. By moving to an independently owned certification scheme, we saw that we would be able to minimize system and audit variations based on geography, sector and customer, and reduce barriers to trade across the chain."

"An independent board comprising representatives from manufacturing, retail, consumer organizations and other international bodies is responsible for the content and management of FSSC 22000," says Cor Groenveld, chairman of the Foundation for Food Safety (FFS), the not-for-profit organization responsible for the scheme. "The scheme's independent ownership should make it attractive to all stakeholders."

The scheme has been designed to meet the GFSI's benchmarking requirements and a decision by the GFSI board will take place in May 2009 as to whether FSSC 22000 is accepted as an approved certification scheme.

Once the GFSI approves FSSC 22000, Paul Whitehouse, quality manager at Unilever and another member of the PAS 220 steering group, believes one impact on the food manufacturing industry could be cost savings and new opportunities for SMEs and niche producers.

"Food safety is a destination; there are a number of routes and you choose one that best suits your organization," he says. "Given that companies are already used to working with ISO standards and are familiar with the risk and management systems based approach adopted by ISO 22000 and PAS 220, they may find it easier to align with these than with other standards."

"A GFSI-approved FSSC 22000 scheme could bring more food manufacturers into the fold, as well as encouraging other interested parties along the food chain to adopt similar PRP-based approaches," says Joy Franks, the global product manager at BSI responsible for food safety.

"The majority of the ISO 22000 certificates that have been issued to date come from outside the manufacturing sector," she says. "The driver was never there for manufacturers because of the PRP issues that are so central to their requirements. This has been addressed by ISO 22000 and PAS 220 and it's quite conceivable that, in a similar way, ISO 22000 plus new PAS 220 type standards could be used as a framework for other food sectors, for example retail, foodservice and packaging. If this was to become the case, then we'd have a more integrated approach to food safety management, which would be a great step forward for the industry and, ultimately, the consumer."

With seven of the world's largest supermarket chains already committed to accepting any scheme recognized by the GFSI, there is widespread optimism that FSSC 22000 will join the GFSI recognized list, says Groenveld: "The development of the scheme and PAS 220 has been a positive process, with international and broad industry input. Now we are just waiting for the GFSI approval and then we will hopefully see a significant impact in the industry."

"We are heading towards a truly international food safety standard, one that covers the whole of the supply chain," says Mould. "This will make the supply chain safer. If every aspect of the food industry adopted one international standard and operated under the same management system structure, then we will have more consistency and enhanced safety throughout the supply chain. With ISO 22000 and PAS 220 coming together under FSSC 22000, we're in a position for this to happen and we may well see a revolution in the food industry."

Source: businessstandards.com/Articles