Faced with the risk of large-scale toxic infection, the latest food crises, the increased life span of products and the lengthening of the food chain, hypermarkets, supermarkets and certain countries have developed private sector schemes (IFS for the French and Germans, BRC for the British…) based on the HACCP method to guarantee the safety of their own-brand products.
But questions soon arose regarding harmonisation via an internationally recognised standard framework that would allow everyone in the food chain, and not just those in the food processing sector, to offer consumers safe products.

After three years’ work, ISO published a universal reference framework in September 2005: the ISO 22000 standard, the result of consensus between 45 countries.

By integrating the HACCP procedure into management systems that companies are familiar with, the ISO 22000 standard does not come as a shock to the system.

Its proximity to the ISO 9001 standard also makes it easy to implement. A few months after the standard came out, the firstcom panies in the food processing sector were displaying their ISO 22000 certification. “A legitimate way for them to have their food safety management approach recognised”, said Eric Le Gal, food and mass distribution markets manager at AFNOR Certification.