FSSC 22000

FSSC 22000 is a certification programme recognized by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) and widely accepted by specifiers, brands and manufacturers.

Food production and processing today is facing far higher demands than ever before. On the one hand, consumers want maximum transparency. They want to know where their food comes from, how it was produced and processed and how safety, quality, sustainability, and ethics have been ensured.

On the other hand, the food industry has the responsibility of proving to retailers, brokers, and other business partners that it has taken the necessary measures to fulfil its duty of care. It also shares responsibility for the reputation of major brands.

As an actor of the highly complex food supply chain, you therefore need to meet extremely high standards. At the same time, these standards offer great opportunities. A prerequisite is for you to prove the food safety and other characteristics of your processes according to internationally recognized standards. Such certifications are first and foremost a ticket-to-trade, i.e. without this proof it will be practically impossible to establish new business relationships in the food sector. Certifications will also strengthen existing business relationships and give you opportunities of achieving higher revenues through proven safety and quality.

FSSC 22000 is a food safety certification programme, applicable to the whole supply chain (from farm to fork), based on the existing internationally recognized standard ISO 22000 and complemented by technical standards, such as ISO TS 22002-1 for food manufacturing and ISO TS 22002-4 for packaging manufacturing. It is also fully consistent with other standards, such as ISO 9001 and ISO 14001.

We are your competent partner in obtaining certification according to FSSC 22000. As an accredited and approved certification body, we guide you through the certification process for your processes and systems.

The FSSC 22000 certification programme, has been developed with input from several food sector stakeholders and provides a framework to demonstrate commitment to manage food safety, integrity, legality and quality.

Based on International Organization for Standardization (ISO) management system standards, the certification programme also facilitates integrated implementation and auditing with other ISO management standards.

FSSC 22000 meets the stringent requirements of, and is recognised by, the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI). GFSI does not define its own standards, but does recognize specific international standards on food safety and associated processes and management systems.

Additionally FSSC 22000 has gained the approval from International Accreditation Forum, the Dutch and French government.

Consequently, FSSC 22000 certification is a global ticket to trade in every sector of the world's food market.

Create transparency, safety, and trust in an end-to-end, globalized food supply chain. We support you by auditing and certifying your processes and management systems.

We are a partner who knows every relevant food safety standard worldwide and can certify your business professionally and efficiently. Your relations to customers will then be secure for the long term. Benefit from our more than two decades of experience in the food sector and from top experts who know your industry. To enable you to fully focus on your core business, we continuously monitor the development of new standards for the global food sector.

We support you as a competent and reliable partner, starting with the question which standard is best suited to your company and your business model, through to preparation for the audit required for certification.

An additional benefit for you is entry in our certification Certipedia database that documents your transparency and high standards of safety and quality. This represents one further building block for gaining the trust of customers and business partners.

One-stop-shop for all certifications essential for success

As a globally active and experienced testing and certification organization, we are familiar with many other standards beyond food safety that play a role in the food industry. This gives you important added value. These standards include common audits according to ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001, ISO 50001 as well as information security (ISO 27001, ISO 22301, ISO 20000), supply chain and CSR audits such as SMETA and SA 8000 and the palm oil certification RSPO. We are your partner for efficient certification also in areas such as environmental protection, occupational health and safety, energy management, and more.

In other words, we are a real one-stop shop for you to meet competent experts who possess profound knowledge of the industry and who speak your language.

Disclaimer: At TÜV Rheinland, the neutrality, objectivity, independency and impartiality of our activities are of utmost importance. Our assessment and audit activities follow these values in compliance with the applicable accreditation requirements. All the necessary structural, organizational and processual measures are in place in all levels of the organization in order to avoid conflicts of interest (e.g. rigorous separation of consultancy and certification) and to ensure impartiality. We do not offer or provide management system consultancy by an accredited certification body for management systems. Within the TR Group, we ensure a minimum 2-year interval between management system consultancy and certification activity for the same costumer.

• Manufacturers that supply food to international chains or wholesale dealers
• Manufacturers of animal products
• Manufacturers of perishable vegetable products
• Manufacturers of products with long shelf lives
• Manufacturers of food ingredients, such as vitamins or biocultures
• Manufacturers of food packaging materials

The FSSC 22000 standard was developed on the basis of the ISO 22000:2005 standard and the ISO22002-1:2009 or PAS223:2011specification.

Companies that already have ISO 22000 certification and wish to transfer to FSSC 22000, only need an extension audit in compliance with the ISO22002-1:2009 or PAS223:2011 requirements.