ISO 22000: Food Standards Crossing Borders
Online, July 31, 2012 (Newswire.com) - The ISO 22000 standard was developed to ensure the integrity of the food supply chain. With food products now regularly crossing national borders the International Organisation for Standards published the standard, working with industry experts, to provide a worldwide baseline standard for food quality, safety and efficiency.
A current issue hitting the front page of the food standard pages is the labelling of products. With the British Nutrition Foundation (BNF) revealing the launch of their new online nutrition training course responding to the need within the food and drink supply chain of more rigorous scientific information about nutrition and health, there is a great amount of interest surrounding this issue in the food chain.
Falsely describing, advertising or presenting food is an offence, and there are a number of laws designed to protect consumers against dishonesty with regards to the labelling of food. Food labelling laws are set out by the EU and then implemented in individual member states by national legislation. This therefore means that any food imported into the UK needs to meet both EU and UK legislation for product-specific labelling and these legislations are implemented by local authorities in the UK.
In particular, it has been noted that small and medium sized enterprises working within the food industry are the ones which are falling short of the labelling standards - standards which will become mandatory in 2016 following the transitional phase. This lack of labelling in the small and medium sized enterprises is one of the reasons why the BNF has launched its new online courses. The courses are modular and incorporate subjects based around food, health, nutrition and active lifestyles. They incorporate text, photographs, video charts and audio to support the learning experience.
"With the UK government focussing on healthy eating and educating citizens regarding nutrition, the standardisation of labelling is important so that members of the public are able to make an informed judgement about what they are putting in their shopping baskets," says Michelle Murdoch of QMS International PLC, a company certifying businesses with the ISO 22000 standard. "ISO 22000 is specifically designed to implement a Food Management System into your organisation, in which you must consider the legal requirements you have to comply with both nationally and internationally. It ensures the integrity of the food supply chain by controlling hazards. It makes sense for those involved in food processing, manufacturing, storage packaging and distribution of food and food products to implement ISO 22000."
It will be interesting to see the uptake of the BNF's online courses, especially in the small and medium sized business arena, and what impact we will see on the labelling on food packaging following the course's implementation.
