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PRACTICAL READING GUIDE

ISO 22000: Food-Safety System and Audit Preparation

Separate ISO 22000 from FSSAI licensing, organise food-chain evidence and prepare traceability, supplier and corrective-action records for an audit.

Text updated

ISO 22000 concerns food-safety management across the food chain. ISO's catalogue currently lists the 2018 edition with a 2024 climate-action amendment; its next edition remains a draft. Confirm the published edition and applicable amendments with the intended certification body. [S25]

Certification and food-business licensing are different

Do not use an ISO project as a substitute for reviewing your FSSAI registration or licence. Likewise, an FSSAI certificate alone does not show that an ISO 22000 audit has taken place. Keep each scope, application, audit and resulting document separately labelled. For the licensing changes, use the linked FSSAI preparation guide.

Map your actual food chain

Write down the products, ingredients, suppliers, premises, outsourced activities, storage arrangements and delivery methods. Identify where responsibility changes hands. A kitchen, a packaging operation and a cold-storage provider need different operational evidence; copying another company's checklist can miss the important question.

Prepare records that can be followed

Record groupPreparation question
Suppliers and incoming materialsCan you connect an incoming batch to its supplier, receipt and acceptance record?
Handling and processingWho records the operating checks, exceptions and action taken?
Cleaning and equipmentCan the team show what was done, when and by whom?
Traceability and complaintsCan you follow a selected product through the records and identify the responsible contacts?

Test the handover before an audit

As a preparation exercise, choose one real batch and ask the team to locate its records without reconstructing them from memory. Note the missing links and assign corrections. Do not invent historical logs to make a file look complete. Product-specific hazards, testing methods and control limits need competent assessment; this article does not prescribe them.

Agree the certificate you actually need

If a customer asks for certification, obtain its required scope and any additional scheme requirements in writing. Ask the certification body to identify the sites and activities to be audited and how certification can be independently checked. Certification comes from an external body, not from ISO. [S23]

What does a useful quotation separate?

System-development assistance, staff preparation, laboratory or specialist work, certification-body fees, correction of audit findings and ongoing follow-up. Agree who supplies each item before comparing headline prices. Neither an audit booking nor a consultant's document pack is an issued certificate.

Official references and their limits

Older guidance must be read with subsequent changes. Reachability of a reference is not proof that it answers your particular case.

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