New handbook on certifying food safety management systems

ISO, the International Organization for Standardization, has published a new handbook that compiles two key standards for certifying food safety management systems.

ISO says the handbook contains all the information certification bodies need for reliable and efficient audits.

The handbook combines:

• ISO/TS 22003, which outlines requirements for bodies issuing certifications to ISO 22000 on food safety management systems (FSMS).
• ISO/IEC 17021, which sets generic requirements for bodies carrying out audits.

These contain everything that a certification body (CB) must know when carrying out FSMS audits or certification.

Certification to a FSMS standard such as ISO 22000 can help reassure customers that an organisation has implemented a system for the management of food safety in line with its policy - but this only works if the customer has confidence in the certification, ISO says.

This is where ISO/TS 22003 can play a critical role, says Jacob Faergemand, co-convenor of the group of experts responsible for developing the document. The technical specification defines rules on, for example, auditor competencies and audit duration that CBs have to implement.

In the latest edition of ISO/TS 22003, the most important change is the shift from a qualification-based approach to a full competence-based approach for the definition of auditor competence requirements, ISO says.

The handbook is available from www.iso.org.