FSSC 22000
FSSC 22000 Food Safety System Certification Consultancy
A GFSI recognised scheme that global retail buyers accept without a second audit.
- GFSI Recognition
- Food Fraud Defences
- Multi Site Consistency
- Unannounced Audit Ready
- Practice area
- Food Safety
- Industries
- 3
- Delivery
- Onsite, remote, hybrid
Why expert advice is worth having
Organisations rarely fail FSSC 22000 because the standard is hard. They fail because the evidence does not match what the auditor asks for.
Surveillance never stops
A FSSC 22000 certificate is the start of a three year cycle, not the end of a project. Building for the surveillance audits from day one costs far less than rebuilding before each one.
Experience across sectors
Having implemented FSSC 22000 in very different operating environments, we can tell you quickly which of your worries are real and which are inherited from someone else's situation.
Findings get closed, not logged
Most FSSC 22000 audits produce findings. What matters is whether they are closed with genuine corrective action or papered over, because the next auditor reads the last report first.
It has to survive after we leave
A FSSC 22000 system that only works while a consultant is on site fails its first surveillance audit. We build it so your own people can run it, and train them to do so.
Quick question about FSSC 22000? Message us and get an answer today.
What FSSC 22000 is worth to you
Certification is a commercial decision before it is a technical one. This is where the return usually shows up.
GFSI Recognition
Global buyers who mandate a benchmarked scheme accept this one, which a plain food safety management certificate does not satisfy.
Food Fraud Defences
The required vulnerability and food defence assessments protect you from adulterated inputs that would otherwise arrive and be used unnoticed.
Multi Site Consistency
One scheme applied across plants means the customer receives the same standard of product wherever their order happens to be made.
Unannounced Audit Ready
Because surveillance can arrive without warning, the system has to work every day, and that daily discipline shows in your output.
Industries where FSSC 22000 applies
Open a sector to see every standard it is usually asked for.
Working to a deadline on FSSC 22000? Send us the date.
Send us the detailsSee the documentation
Look at how it is structured before you commit
Ask to see the documentation before you commit to anyone. In a short demo we open our FSSC 22000 framework and show how each requirement is answered, where your existing records already fit, and what genuinely has to be created rather than tidied up.
FSSC 22000 in detail
A GFSI recognised scheme built on ISO 22000
FSSC 22000 combines ISO 22000, a sector specific prerequisite programme specification from the ISO/TS 22002 series, and a set of additional requirements set by the scheme owner. It is recognised by the Global Food Safety Initiative, which is why large retailers and manufacturers accept it. The structure matters. ISO 22000 supplies the management system, the technical specification supplies concrete hygiene and infrastructure requirements, and the additional requirements cover areas such as food fraud, food defence and allergen management.
It is demanded by multinational food companies of their contract manufacturers, by supermarket groups of private label suppliers, and by exporters whose buyers accept only a GFSI benchmarked certificate. Food manufacturers, animal feed producers, packaging makers, transport and storage operators and catering businesses each work to their own prerequisite specification. Companies already running ISO 22000 often come to us because a customer has told them the certificate they hold is not the one being asked for.
Closing the gap between a management system and scheme requirements
Where a study or an ISO 22000 system already exists, we begin with a gap assessment against all three parts of the scheme, since the additional requirements are what most sites miss. Food fraud vulnerability assessment and food defence threat assessment both have to be documented, with mitigation plans that name owners. Allergen management, environmental monitoring, label verification, equipment purchase specifications and control of purchased services all need evidence rather than good intentions.
Then we build out the system: communication with suppliers and customers, emergency preparedness, traceability and recall proven by a timed mock exercise, validation of control measures, and the internal audit and management review cycle. On the infrastructure side we walk the site against the relevant ISO/TS 22002 part, covering layout, utilities, waste, pest control, personnel facilities, maintenance and cross contamination routes. Findings become a costed plan, because some of them need capital rather than a new procedure.
Certification and the buyer conversations that follow
You end up with a documented food safety management system, a validated hazard study, prerequisite programmes matched to your sector specification, food fraud and food defence assessments, traceability and recall evidence, and internal audit records whose findings were genuinely closed. An accredited certification body performs the audit and issues the FSSC 22000 certificate, including the unannounced audits the scheme requires. We prepare you for those in particular, because the announced audit is the easy one.
The certificate changes which conversations you are allowed to have. Private label tenders open up, buyer audits shorten, and the supplier approval questionnaire that used to consume a month becomes an attachment. Inside the plant, the useful shift is the discipline of environmental monitoring and verification, which surfaces problems in the building before they surface in the product. Sites often find complaint rates and rework volumes both fall during the first certification cycle.
The route to your FSSC 22000 certificate
- 1Gap analysis
- 2Documentation
- 3Training
- 4Implementation
- 5Internal audits
- 6Closure of gaps
- 7Management review
- 8Certification audit
- 9Surveillance audits
Would half an hour on FSSC 22000 with a consultant be useful?
FSSC 22000 questions we are asked most
What does FSSC 22000 involve in practice?
In practice that means documented processes matching how you really work, records showing the system running, people trained on their part of it, and an internal audit completed before anyone external arrives.
What is a realistic timeline for FSSC 22000?
Plan on somewhere between eight and sixteen weeks. Organisations with existing procedures move faster; those starting from nothing spend most of the time on documentation and getting records actually made rather than promised.
Do you issue the FSSC 22000 certificate yourselves?
No, and no consultant should. The certificate comes from an independent accredited certification body after their own audit. We prepare you to pass it and we are there on the day to close findings. That separation is exactly what makes the certificate worth holding.
What does FSSC 22000 consultancy cost?
There is no useful list price for FSSC 22000. Two organisations of the same size can differ by a factor of three depending on existing documentation. A short scoping call gets you an accurate written number.
Which industries need FSSC 22000?
We map FSSC 22000 to 3 sectors and it sits in our food safety practice. Organisations usually arrive because a specific buyer, regulator or tender committee has asked. Tell us who is asking and we will confirm whether this is the standard that satisfies them.
Do you have to visit our premises?
We work onsite, remote or a mix. Multi site groups often use remote sessions for documentation and reserve site visits for the gap analysis and the audit itself, which keeps travel cost out of the fee.
Prefer to just ask someone about FSSC 22000 rather than fill in a form?
Insights, news and know-how
Guidance from our consultants, with anything about this standard first in each column.
Blogs22
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News
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Articles
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Knowledge base
How things are actually done.
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Ready to start on FSSC 22000?
Book a short session and we will tell you what is involved, how long it takes and what it costs.