News November 2022

ISO/TC34/SC17 – Food Safety Management Systems wrapped up 2022 with a successful set of hybrid meetings in Wayzata, Minnesota (USA) on November 1st, 2nd and 3rd.   The meetings were organized by SC17’s US member body ANSI and its mirror committee sponsor, the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) and held at industry supporter Cargill Inc.’s headquarters.  

WG11 – Prerequisite Programmes (PRPs) on Food Safety’s meetings and SC17’s 12th Plenary session had participants in the virtual room from Australia, Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas and participants in the physical room from Japan, Denmark, Scotland, Argentina, Canada, and the United States.

ISO/TC34/SC17/WG11 - 8th Meeting

On November 1st and 2nd, 33 working group experts from 13 countries and 2 liaison organizations reviewed in detail the WG11’s draft of PWI ISO 22002 Part 100 – PRP Common requirements.  This document is slated to become the core set of PRPs for all segments of the supply chain (i.e., ISO 22003-1 and ISO 22003-2 Food categories BIII, CO, CI, CII, CIII, CIV, D, E, FI, FII, G, H, I, J and K) with the exception, for now, of primary agriculture (i.e. ISO 22003-1 and ISO 22003-2 Food categories AI, AII, BI and BII).  Improvements were made in the draft and the text was finalized for inclusion in a new work item proposal to be circulated later in November to SC17 members for approval in 2023.  

The future role of the existing 22002 Parts 1 (food manufacturing), 2 (catering), 4 (food packaging), 5 (transport and storage) and 6 (feed and animal food production) was also considered.  These documents are scheduled for review under ISO’s mandatory systematic review process during the first half 2023.  WG11 re-established teams to review each of the ISO 22002 Parts to determine if there are any sector specific PRPs required, in addition to the proposed “core PRPs” set out in the Part 100 draft.  These teams are to report at the next WG11 meeting in March/April 2023.

On the future of ISO 22002-3:2011 – Farming, WG11 recommended that it be confirmed by SC17 and agreed that additional working group experts with experience in the development and implementation of on-farm food safety management systems would be recruited in 2023 to join the review team for this Part.

ISO/TC34/SC17 - 12th Plenary Meeting

The SC17 plenary session, on November 3rd, saw even greater member participation in the physical and virtual rooms – in all, 34 countries were represented by 79 participants (delegates, liaisons, and quests).  The agenda included reports from:

• SC17/WG11,
• SC17/CASCO JWG36,
• SC17/AG1 – Expert Panel,
• SC17/AG2 – Communications,
• SC17/AG3 – Codex General Principles for Food Hygiene,
• Sc17/AG4 - IAF/SC17 Auditor Practices Group,
• SC17 Study group on ISO 22005:2007,
• ISO/TMBG/JTCG/TF – Future direction for ISO MSS, and,
• ISO/TMB/FT 14 – Risk and associated terms. 

In addition, there were oral reports from several liaison organizations:

• ISO/TC 302 – Guidelines for auding management systems,
• ISO/TC 324 – Fisheries and aquaculture,
• ISO/PC 315 – Indirect, temperature-controlled refrigerated delivery services – land transfer of parcels with intermediate transfer,
• Foundation FSSC,
• International Dairy Federation (IDF), and
• SSAFE (Safe Supply of Affordable Food Everywhere).

Decisions in relation to these reports were taken to:

• Submit ISO 22002 Part 100 as a new work item proposal for balloting by SC17 members,
• Disband ISO/TC34/SC17/CASCO JWG36 as its work had been completed with the publication in June of ISO 22003-1:2022, Food safety — Part 1: Requirements for bodies providing audit and certification of food safety management systems [FSMS] and ISO 22003-2:2022, Food safety — Part 2: Requirements for bodies providing evaluation and certification of products, processes and services, including an audit of the food safety system [FSS]  (Note: A webinar on these standards can be found at The SC17 Homepage)
• Modify the terms of reference of SC17/AG3 to broaden its scope to cover any initiatives in the Codex Alimentarius Commission and its committees of relevance to SC17 (e.g. traceability, food culture, etc.) and seek official liaison status for SC17 with Codex Committee on Food Import and Export Inspection and Certification Systems (CCFICS) [Note: SC17 already has liaison status with the Codex Alimentarius Commission and its Committee on Food Hygiene];
• Confirm ISO 22005:2013 – Traceability in the feed and food chain – General Principles and basic requirements for system design and implementation, disband the SC17 study group and assign responsibility for monitoring international developments in traceability to SC17/AG3,
• Establish a liaison with the IAF Working Group on Food given the importance of its role in conformity assessment of food safety managements systems (FSMS) and food safety systems (FSS) (Note: SC17 already has liaison status with IAF).

The plenary participants had a full discussion of the upcoming systematic review of ISO 22000:2018, to be launched in early 2023.  They noted that revision of the standard would be required given the modifications that ISO had made in 2021 to the harmonized structure for all management system standards (MSS) in Annex SL of the ISO Directives, Part 1.   These changes are to be incorporated in each MSS at their next scheduled review/revision.   Participants were encouraged to consult with their mirror committees and liaison bodies about any other suggestions for improvements to ISO 22000:2018 that may have arisen during since its publication. A study group was formed to consider proposals for revision to ISO 22000:2018 and to report at the 13th plenary meeting in November 2023.

At the end of the meeting, the plenary heard a report from the Canadian delegation on cannabis edibles (food products incorporating cannabis or cannabis derivatives), a subject discussed at the 10th (Ottawa - 2019).  The report noted that work in this field had been advanced by ISO/IWA 37 on “safety, security and sustainability of cannabis facilities and operations” led by Canada.  The workshop’s third document - ISO IWA 37-3:2022, Safety, security and sustainability of cannabis facilities and operations – Part 3: Good production practices (GPP) is based in part on ISO 22002-1:2009 and its informative Appendix B on cannabis edibles directly supplements ISO 22002-1:2009.

Future Meetings - 2023:

ISO/TC34/SC17/WG11 – Prerequisite Programmes (PRPs) for Food Safety

• Virtual meetings in March and late August
• Face-to-face meeting in November - Singapore

ISO/TC34/SC17 – Food Safety Management Systems

• Face-to-face meeting in November - Singapore