Comparing Food Safety Standards
Despite the huge efforts paid by the food safety authorities, experts and industry, food safety remains critical and often is coming into considerations attracting media’s attention with outbreaks that can bring a mass of numerous negative consequences. In order to guarantee health security of food and, in particular, consumers’ health safety, legal regulations as well as new quality norms and standards are constantly expanded. Every food company attempts to manufacture and distribute products that are safe and wholesome for its consumers.
There are lots of different sorts of safety systems and quality management systems in the market, which program are you applying right now in your enterprise and which one do you think you should implement? You might do not know which of them fits best for your needs and what the differences between different systems are.
Among the available Quality Assurance (QA) systems, there are available systems such as GMPs (Good Manufacturing Practices), GHPs (Good Hygiene Practices), GAPs (Good Agricultural Practices) or other prerequisite systems and HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points). Management systems such as ISO 9000, or integrated Food safety management systems (FSMS) such as ISO 22000:2005 are also accessible for producers.
The Quality Assurance (QA) systems can be classified according to the extent of activities they cover, in:
– Basic safety systems: prerequisites (GMPs, GHPs, GLPs, GAPs, etc.);
– Advanced safety systems such as HACCP;
– Basic quality management systems – ISO 9001;
– Advanced quality management systems – ISO 9004;
– Integrated food safety management systems– ISO 22000, BRC, IFS, BRC, SQF, and FSSC 22000.
Here is a brief description of some of these systems:
Basic safety systems: prerequisites (GMPs, GHPs, GLPs, GAPs, etc.)
Good Hygiene Practice (GHP) represents to procedures that must be undertaken and hygiene conditions that have to be fulfilled and monitored at all stages of production or trade in order to guarantee food safety. Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) denotes all the actions that must be undertaken and conditions to be satisfied in order to ensure that production of food, packaging materials and other materials expected for contact with food, is performed in proper way to guarantee safe products and safe food for human consumption. The Prerequisite Program in other words GHP/GMP is the first step to implementation of food safety and quality systems along the entire food chain beginning with the initial production, feed production, animal raising, processing, transport and ending with the retail trade.
HACCP
The basis for the elaboration and implementation of the HACCP system is the Codex Alimentarius. HACCP includes all the procedures whose aim is to guarantee food safety by way of the identification and assessment of the scale of threat from the point of view of the health and quality of food as well as the risk of hazards which may occur in the course of all the stages of the production process and food circulation. In addition, the system also aims to regulate methods of limiting hazards and establishment of remedial actions. A HACCP System requires that potential hazards are identified and controlled at specific points in the process. This includes biological, chemical, or physical hazards. There are seven principles that serve as the foundation for a HACCP system. They are:
- Hazard analysis, in other words, identification and assessment of threats and possible hazards of their occurrence and determination of control measures and methods of neutralizing these threats,
- Determination of critical control points (CCP) in order to eliminate or minimise the occurrence of hazards,
- Establish critical limits for the identified critical control points,
- Determination and implementation of a system for the monitoring of critical control points,
- Establishment of corrective actions, if a critical control point does not fulfil the necessary requirements,
- Establishment of verification procedures in order to confirm if the system is effective and acts in accordance with the plan,
- Elaboration and conservation of the documentation of the HACCP system concerning stages of its implementation and determination of the method of data registration and storage as well as archiving of the system documentation.
Any company involved in the manufacturing, processing, or handling of food products can use HACCP to minimize or eliminate food safety hazards in their product. HACCP is not a GFSI recognized system.
ISO 22000
The ISO 22000:2005 standard is a new standard published in September 2005 with the aim to unify principles of the quality systems used in the food industry. It is an optional standard because it goes beyond the framework of the GHP/GMP and HACCP requirements. ISO 22000:2005 integrates both the quality management system (ISO 9001:2000) and HACCP system.
SQF
The Safe Quality Food (SQF) is a food safety certification scheme. It is an integrated management system for food safety and quality, supported by a comprehensive certification program designed to meet the needs of buyers and food suppliers worldwide. The SQF Code has different requirements specific to different industry segments, meaning that many different types of food companies can use the SQF Code to build a system that is right for them. The latest edition of the SQF Code is 8.1 which was released in 2019. This Code is divided into three certification levels. Each level is designed to indicate the level of development of a supplier’s food safety and quality management system as follows:
-
SQF Food Safety Fundamentals (Formerly known as SQF Level 1):
For low risk products and it incorporates fundamental food safety controls. This is not recognized or benchmarked by GFSI.
-
SQF Food Safety Code (Formerly known as SQF Level 2 Certification):
SQF Food Safety Code is a certified HACCP food safety plan. Most companies will select this level since it is benchmarked by GFSI. It is available in several versions including:
- SQF Food Safety Code for Manufacturers
- SQF Food Safety Code for Primary Production
- SQF Food Safety Code for Food Retail
- SQF Food Safety Code for Manufacture of Food Packaging
- SQF Food Safety Code for Storage and Distribution
-
SQF Quality Code (Formerly known as SQF Level 3 Certification):
This involves a comprehensive implementation of safety and quality management systems that incorporates the Food Safety Code. The Food Safety Code is implemented first, before adding the SQF Quality Code.
An organization can choose which level to follow. It is also possible to start at one level and move to the next in the future.
FSSC 22000
FSSC 22000 is a food safety management system certification scheme that has been developed to certify food safety systems of organizations that process or manufacture animal products, perishable plant products, products with a long shelf life, and other food ingredients such as additives, vitamins and organic crops and materials for food packaging. FSSC 22000 aims to promote international harmonization and transparency in food safety standards. FSSC 22000 continues to be based on the ISO 22000 standard. However, the ISO 22000 Certification is not recognized by GFSI and GFSI recognition is playing an important role in Food Safety Management Systems Certification. To address this, the Foundation for Food Safety Certification created the FSSC 22000 scheme. By using the ISO 22000 standard, adding Prerequisite Program requirements and a few general requirements the Foundation created an ISO 22000 based scheme that was benchmarked and recognized by GFSI. It contains a comprehensive certification program for food safety systems that incorporates the standards ISO 22000, ISO 22003, and technical specifications for sector prerequisite programs (PRPs), like ISO 22002-1 and PAS 223.
IFS AND BRC
The International Food Standard (IFS) and the British Retail Consortium (BRC) standards are founded, among others, on the GHP/GMP principles, the HACCP system and the ISO 9001 standard. These standards enforce many requirements to be fulfilled by manufacturers. They are optional and are implemented by manufacturers who deliver their goods to large super-market networks.
IFS Food applies when products are “processed” or when there is a hazard for product contamination during primary packing. The Standard is important for all food manufacturers, especially for those producing private labels, as it contains many requirements related to the compliance with customer specifications. The Standard supports the production and marketing departments in their efforts for brand safety and quality. IFS Food has been developed with full and active involvement of certification bodies, retailers, food industry and food service companies.
The BRC standard was established by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) to support retailers in meeting legal food safety obligations and guarantee the highest level of consumer protection. Although the BRC food safety standard began in the UK, it is now recognized as a GFSI benchmarked food safety scheme.
What is the GFSI?
The process towards the ‘food quality management system’ worldwide has gradually established a small number of related standards under the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI). GFSI is an independent non-profit foundation of prominent food safety experts and related interests from retail, manufacturing and food service industries worldwide. Co-ordinated by the Consumer Goods Forum, it responded to keen demand for safe food products, increasing food safety problems, lack of agreement on food safety standards and the increasing load of more frequent food safety audits allowed by suppliers and processors.
Which standards are recognized by GFSI?
- British Retail Consortium (BRC)
- CanadaGAP
- Food Safety System Certification (FSSC) 22000
- Global Aquaculture Alliance Seafood
- Global Red Meat Standard (GRMS)
- GLOBALG.A.P.
- International Featured Standard (IFS) Version 6.1
- Japan Food Safety Management Association (JFSM)
- Japan GAP Foundation
- PrimusGFS Standard
- The Safe Quality Food (SQF)
You could check for the most up-to-date list of recognized standards and the scope of each standard here (https://mygfsi.com/how-to-implement/recognition) or download this file to have a summary of all standards.
Among these standards, the most applied schemes for food enterprises include:
- The British Retail Consortium (BRC)
- The International Featured Standard (IFS)
- The Food Safety System Certification (FSSC) 22000
- The Safe Quality Food (SQF)
Let’s compare these four GFSI approved standards:
|
SUBJECT |
BRC |
IFS |
SQF |
FSSC 22000 |
|
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS |
Quality and food safety |
Quality and food safety |
Level 2 Food Safety Level 3 Include Quality
(need to conduct food safety analysis, define critical quality control point) |
Food Safety |
|
SYSTEM ESTABLISHMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION |
Prescriptive requirements |
Prescriptive requirements |
Some requirements are prescriptive Require SQF practitioner (full timer) |
Provide frame work requirements for the company to demonstrate how to comply and demonstrate their food safety system |
|
REPORT/DATA MANAGEMENT |
By Certification body and Standard owner |
By Certification body and Standard owner |
Company needs to register in Quick fire prior to certification process |
By Certification body and Standard owner |
|
CERTIFICATION PROCESS |
No stage 1 – Company can easily go direct to on site certification audit |
No stage 1 – Company can easily go direct to on site certification audit |
Stage 1 on site or off site Stage 2 on site |
Stage 1 on site Stage 2 on site |
|
CERTIFICATE VALIDITY |
Certificate valid for 1 year Grade C-Recertification within 6 months |
Certificate valid for 1 year |
Certificate valid for 1 year Grade C-Recertification within 6 months |
Certificate valid for 3 years |
|
INTEGRATED AUDIT |
As recertification is depending on the result of the audit (grade C need to be 6 months so interval or integrated condition will be changed depending |
Not allow integrated with ISO management system standard, allow integrated with product certification scheme |
Different management system structure but possible for integrated audit |
Same management system structure as ISO standard so it is easily to integrate with other management system standards |
|
RECERTIFICATION/ MAINTENANCE VISIT |
Same audit time as Certification visit |
Same audit time as Certification visit |
Same audit time as Stage 2 on site |
Less audit time than Stage 2 on site |
|
CERTIFICATION MARK |
Not allow to be displayed on the product |
Not allow to be displayed on the product |
Level 3 certification can use certification mark on the product |
Not allow to be displayed on the product |
Ref: SGS Global
GFSI itself is not a certification program, nor does it perform certification or accreditation activities. Thus, you’ll first need to determine which system(s) are best for your organization based on the types of activities of your operation. Next, contact the program owner that covers your scope to determine which specific certification program fits your activities.
CONCLUSION
Honestly, it is not an easy task to find the best standard since each one has its own pros and cons and you should consider many mentioned elements to choose finally the best standard that might be updated, upgraded or changed in the future. Selecting the right standard should be a priority. It’s recommended to consider the following items:
- Ease of use and suitability of the standard based on your existing food safety and quality systems, and on your company’s culture
- Specific requirements and structure of the standard
- How easy it is to understand and meet the requirements
- Audit rules, costs, frequency and grading system
- Auditor availability
- How standards support customer preferences
All GFSI standards request senior management commitment and demand companies to regularly review customer requirements, define processes and validate consistent control over identified hazards, updating and improving the food safety management system to adapt to changes in process, requirements or regulations. The most important thing an organisation should to consider when selecting a GFSI approved food safety standard is making sure there is the perfect match between the standard and the organisation.