By Natalia Larrimer, Associate Director of Accreditation, Management Systems Food Safety, Quality, Anti-bribery, Compliance and Social Programs on May 30, 2024 09:00 am
FSSC 22000 is a GFSI-benchmarked, globally recognized food safety management systems certification scheme. It is based on international and independent standards and incorporates technical specifications for sector-specific Pre-Requisite Programs (PRPs). Version 6 (V6) of FSSC 22000 requirements was published on April 1, 2023.
Changes to FSSC 22000 V6
The main driver for the revisions were:
The release of ISO 22003-1:2022
Addition of new requirements to support organizations in their contributions to meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)
Strengthening existing requirements and introduction of new requirements
Editorial changes and amendments as part of continuous improvement.
FSSC 22000 V6 Requirements
The scheme requirements consist of five parts with two appendices and 5 annexes. The Board of Stakeholders (BoS) decisions are also mandatory in the implementation of the scheme requirements.
In addition to the requirements, the Foundation has also published several guidance documents to assist certified organizations on how to implement certain requirements, as well as interpretation articles to further clarification on Scheme requirements and their application and implementation.
Transitioning to FSSC 22000 V6
The Foundation FSSC established the requirements for the upgrade or transition process from V5.1 to V6, and these requirements were incorporated into the ANAB Accreditation Rule 23 Accreditation Program for FSSC 22000, with the main three milestone dates as follows:
CBs must be accredited to version 6 of the scheme by March 31, 2024
Audits must be to the version 6 of the scheme after April 1, 2024
All certificates must be to the version 6 of the scheme by May 31, 2025
Organizations certified to FSSC 22000 must complete their upgrade audit to V6 before March 31, 2025. Additional upgrade requirements for certification bodies and certified organizations can be found in the FSSC 22000 V6 Upgrade Process. As of April 2024, ANAB begun conducting witness assessment of CBs conducting certification audits to V6 of the requirements.
