Cover Story: How important are food Safety management certification schemes

Dr. Sandesh Janjirkar           DNV’s Food Specialist

About 3-5 percent of patients become chronic carriers of the bacteria after the acute illness, showing no symptoms but can be the source of new outbreaks of typhoid fever for many years.There are many regulatory bodies that have been formed worldwide to ensure food safety. For instance, in the US, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) publishes the Food Code which has to be implemented by all regulatory agencies at all levels of government. The UK Food Standards Agency is responsible for the food safety legislation, which is enforced by ‘Food Authorities.’ In 2003, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health  Organization (WHO) came up with the Codex Alimentarius which serves as a guideline to food safety and is useful for the World Trade Organization to resolve disputes concerning food safety and consumer protection.HACCP is a risk management tool specifically designed for the food sector by the Codex Alimentarius Commission. The Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) management system helps to identify, prioritize and control potential hazards (microbiological, chemical or physical) that could pose a danger to the preparation of safe food.

HACCP compliance in the Middle East

HACCP management has now become an effective system of managing and controlling food safety hazards. Across the Middle East, HACCP implementation has been a problem, particularly for small and medium food businesses, because of the challenges of language, literacy, cultural differences and a lack of resources and expertise.However, the Food Control Authorities in the region are pressing food manufacturers to get HACCP certification and approved food safety training, via certification bodies present in the region.One of the leading certification bodies in the Middle East is DNV (Det Norske Veritas), which can offer help to companies in the food and beverage industry in achieving HACCP certification and other accreditations related to food safety. According to DNV’s Food Specialist (Business Assurance) Dr. Sandesh Janjirkar, national food safety policies should coordinate and maximize the efforts of all stakeholders working towards the common goal of food quality and safety. The stakeholders include government departments (health, agriculture, fisheries, education, development, trade and industry/enterprise), scientific institutes, food associations, trainers, consultants and auditors, in addition to buyers, accreditation organizations and standard-setting agencies.

In the UAE, the Dubai Municipality takes an active interest in creating awareness on food safety with all food safety trainers being approved by the Dubai Municipality. Food safety training services include basic food hygiene, intermediate food hygiene, advanced food hygiene, HACCP awareness followed by HACCP implementation. "One of the most important things to remember is that development, implementation, and certification of an HACCP system is a continuous journey, with the independent audit representing one element of the total assessment process," comments Dr. Janjirkar.

Other food Safety management certification

DNV enables any company directly or indirectly involved in the food chain to identify its relevant risks and to manage them efficiently and subsequently attain accreditation for the ISO 22000 standard, which is the fundamental food safety management system standard. Companies indirectly connected to the food business like producers of packaging or detergents, suppliers of cleaning services, pest control, or industrial laundry services, etc, may apply for this standard. DNV also accredits companies with the BRC (British Retail Consortium) Global Standard and the IFS (International Food Standard), both of which ensure supplier compliance and secure retailers’ ability to guarantee the quality and safety of the food products they sell. According to Dr. Janjirkar, BRC Food and IFS are the operational tools most frequently used by all players in the food chain, in order to select and qualify the suppliers. While BRC is the global standard for food retailers, IFS is international standard for auditing retailers and wholesaler branded food products.A step further, the BRC IOP Standard provides safety and quality guidance primarily for the producers of packaging materials, but also for similar products in contact with food whereas the GMP FEFCO is applicable for cardboard packaging producers.

The BRC IOP standard, developed by the British Retailers, and the GMP FEFCO standard, developed by the European cardboard producers, address the requirements to guarantee food safety by applying the HACCP and GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) principles specific to this sector of the food industry.

Another often reiterated fact is the "farm to fork," food safety which starts with agricultural production primarily. EurepGAP is the globally recognized standard specifically designed for farms, issued by European retailers in cooperation with fruit and vegetable producers. Today, it is the globally recognized standard for ensuring the quality and safety of a final product in the agricultural sector. The products covered by this standard include crops, commodities, and foods of animal origin.

FSSC 22000: the complete food management certification scheme

A comprehensive package to attaining food safety is the FSSC 22000, a new food safety certification scheme based on the existing internationally recognized standard ISO 22000, the PAS 220 and ISO TS 22003 (the standard establishing the certification rules). DNV is actively promoting this certification scheme among its clients. The distinctive item of this certification scheme is the use of the Publicly Available Specification (PAS 220), which has been developed to specify requirements for prerequisite programs (as per ISO 22000 § 7.2) to assist in controlling food safety standards within the manufacturing processes of the food supply chain.

PAS 220 was published on October 2008 by British Standards Institution (BSI) and sponsored by Danone, Kraft, Nestlè, Unilever and Confederation of the Food and Drink Industries of the European Union (CIAA).

The FSSC 22000 targets the food manufacturing sector specifically and takes into consideration the gap analysis done by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), which is the most influential interest group for food retail companies. GFSI established a widely accepted set of criteria to define the food safety certification schemes suitability for the whole food industry and on the basis of these criteria an informal gap analysis benchmark on the ISO 22000 standard was performed to compare it with the so called "GFSI standards".

GFSI performed an informal gap analysis benchmark on the ISO 22000 standard to compare it with the other widely accepted food safety standards such as BRC (British Retail Consortium), IFS, SQF and Dutch HACCP. A problem according to the GFSI criteria is that ISO 22000, being a management system standard, is "too generic" when it comes to prerequisite programmes and that a certification scheme owner was missing.The FSSC 22000 fully integrates within the overall company’s management system and is a robust ‘hazard analysis and risk management" methodology based on HACCP principles with the ability to improve food safety effectiveness and efficiency. The FSSC 22000 uses detailed guidelines from the PAS 220, concerning the pre-requisite programmes, as requested by ISO 22000 § 7.2, which fit the retailers needs.

"We have observed the increasing trend of certification for ISO 22000 in the Middle East. Those already certified with ISO 22000 have shown an interest in updating their companies to the FSSC 22000 certification level.

"Manufacturers already certified against ISO 22000 will only need a validation of ISO 22000 certification and an additional review against the PAS 220 to meet the FSSC 22000 certification scheme," informs Dr. Janjirkar.

To qualify against the PAS 220 in order to achieve FSSC 22000, companies need to identify, evaluate, and control the food safety hazards that may be expected to occur in order to avoid harming the consumer directly or indirectly. Companies need to further communicate appropriate information through the food chain regarding safety issues related to the product; communicate information concerning development, implementation, and updating of the food safety management system throughout the organization; and evaluate periodically and update, when necessary, the food safety management system to cover the company’s actual activities and the most recent information on food safety hazards.DNV helps clients in a number of ways. It provides training on FSSC 22000, ISO 22000 and PAS 220, performs gap-analysis, to help companies understand the best route to certification and performs certification activities according to FSSC 22000 through focused audits.

"We start by asking what the company’s most significant food safety management issues are. Then, after discussions to agree on certain focus areas, we tailor the audit to address especially these identified processes,"

In fact, companies like DNV actually fulfill the national food policies of any country and by helping to incorporate a food safety management system, change a company’s approach from a reactive to a proactive way of thinking. Once certified by DNV, any food company should have the assurance that all that needs to be done to safeguard food safety has been taken care of as per the standards and legislation relevant to the business.