Food standard certification launched

The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) announced the national launch of the Food Safety Management System (FSMS) Certification as per IS/ISO 22000 here.

The scheme is on the lines of the International Organisation for Standardisation's (ISO) landmark standard designed to ensure food safety which was unveiled in September last.

The certification scheme "� ISO 22000:2005 "� for food safety management systems will benefit organisations in the food chain and would provide a framework of internationally harmonised requirements for the global approach needed.

This standard has been developed within ISO by experts from the food industry along with representatives of specialised international organisations and in close cooperation with the Codex Alimentarius Commission, the body jointly established by the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and World Health Organisation (WHO) to devise food standards.

As per the standard, the benefit is that ISO 22000 will make it easier for organisations to implement the Codex HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) system for food hygiene in a harmonised way.

ISO 22000 incorporates the principles of HACCP, and covers the requirements of key standards developed by various global food retailer syndicates, in a single document, S P Sharma, BIS director-general, told reporters.

Sharma said, "As food safety hazards can enter the food chain at any stage, adequate control throughout is essential." Food safety is a joint responsibility of all players in the food chain and requires their combined efforts.

Another benefit of ISO 22000 is that it extends the successful management system approach of the ISO 9001:2000 quality management system standard which is widely implemented in all sectors but does not itself specifically address food safety, Sharma said.

While ISO 22000 can be implemented on its own, it is designed to be fully compatible with ISO 9001: 2000 and companies already certified ISO 9001 will find it easy to extend this to ISO 22000 certification.

BIS earlier accorded the IS/ISO 9001: 2000 licence to Food Corporation of India (FCI), Kerala region, at a function organised by the FCI regional office in Thiruvananthapuram. FCI Kerala region gets the honour for decentralised procurement, movement, storage, preservation, transportation and distribution of food grains.

This is also the first time in the history of the FCI, all the FCI regions in a state have been jointly awarded the IS/ISO 9001:2000 licence.