Information for CBs providing certification of Food Safety Management Systems
Notices
ISO/TS 22003:2013, Food Safety Management Systems – Requirements for bodies providing audit and certification of food safety management systems was published on 15th December 2013. This 2013 TS, that replaced former ISO/TS 22003:2007, contains amended requirements for food safety management systems audits that are carried out by third parties and requirements for competence of personnel involved in the certification process.
The International Accreditation Forum (IAF) published an informative document IAF ID 8:2014, and made it available on the IAF’s website, whereas the document contains a reference to the relevant IAF General Assembly Resolution determining a transitional period of three years from the date of publication (15th December 2013) of the technical specification ISO/TS 22003:2013 for the transition of certification bodies providing certification of food safety managements systems to accreditation as per the said technical specification.
The Institute for Standardization of Serbia published on 30th October 2015 SRPS ISO/TS 22003:2015, Food Safety Management Systems - Requirements for bodies providing audit and certification of food safety management systems in order to transpose ISO/TS 22003:2013 and replace former technical specification SRPS ISO/TS 22003:2010.
Since the conditions for the transition of certification bodies providing certification of food safety management systems, accredited by the Accreditation Body of Serbia (ATS) as per SRPS ISO/IEC 17021:2011 and SRPS ISO/TS 22003, to accreditation as per SRPS ISO/IEC 17021:2011 and SRPS ISO/TS 22003:2015 were met, ATS informs the interested parties and its’ Clients of the following:
Applications for accreditation submitted by certification bodies providing certification of food safety management systems as per SRPS ISO/IEC 17021:2011 and SRPS ISO/TS 22003:2010 after 15th December 2015 will not be accepted.
New accreditations will be granted after 15th May 2016 only in accordance with the version of SRPS ISO/IEC 17021:2011 and SRPS ISO/TS 22003:2010 that will be valid at that time.
All accredited certification bodies providing certification of food safety management systems need to prepare a plan for a transition to accreditation as per SRPS ISO/TS 22003:2015. These plans should determine the changes in the management system and time frames for implementing necessary changes in order to achieve conformance with the requirements of the new technical specification. The plans should be submitted to ATS by 15th December 2015 at the latest.
Transition to SRPS ISO/TS 22003:2015 can require certain changes in the procedures, delivery of training or other activities that are time-consuming, especially as it will be necessary to put in place the process and system in order to determine the CB personnel competence.
After receiving and assessing the plan of transition to accreditation as per SRPS ISO/TS 22003:2015, ATS will check the application of requirements of the new technical specification in the CB Head Office during initial assessments, regular surveillance assessments or reassessments. All assessments after 15th February 2016 will also include the assessment of conformity with the requirements of the new technical specification.
If certain nonconformities are identified during assessments, certification bodies are obliged to eliminate them as prescribed in the ATS rules and procedures, but before the expiry of the transition period in order to enable ATS to make appropriate decisions on accreditation.
All accredited certification bodies providing certification of food safety management systems shall, by the expiry of the transition period (i.e. by 15th December 2016), be in conformance with SRPS ISO/TS 22003:2015, whereas this will be formulated in the Scope of Accreditation. Scopes of accreditation of the certification bodies providing certification of food safety management systems, which fail to switch to accreditation as per SRPS ISO/TS 22003:2015 by 15th December 2016, will be reduced for the part referring to certification of food safety management systems.
Having in mind food chain categories listed in table A.1 of Annex A of SRPS ISO/TS 22003:2010, these are grouped as the following clusters:
1. Farming (A+B)
2. Food and Feed Processing (C+D)
3. Catering (E)
4. Retail, Transport and Storage (F+G)
5. Auxiliary Industries (H+I+J)
6. (Bio) Chemicals (K)
After the assessments have been completed and decisions on the transition to the new version of the technical specification have been made, scopes of accreditation of certification bodies will be updated in accordance with the clusters and categories of the new version of the technical specification. In principle, valid scopes of accreditation (formulated as per the categories) will be redefined as (new) clusters and categories in accordance to (attached) Table 1.
If valid scopes of accreditation of certification bodies do not contain all the categories of a particular cluster, CBs will decide whether they want to:
- offer certification services for the entire cluster (SRPS ISO/TS 22003:2015) and in that case they must apply for the extension of the scope of accreditation or
- continue to offer certification services for current categories, but within the scope of (new) clusters when the scopes of accreditation will be revised to include only the categories within specific clusters.
TABLE 1
| Scope of accreditation as per SRPS ISO/TS 22003:2010 | Scope of accreditation as per SRPS ISO/TS 22003:2015 | ||
| Code | Category | Cluster | Category |
| A | Farming 1 (Animals) | Farming | A Farming of Animals |
| B | Farming 2 (Plants) | Farming | B Farming of Plants |
| C |
Processing 1 (Perishable animal products) including all activities after farming, e.g. slaughtering |
Food and feed processing | C Food manufacturing |
| D | Processing 2 (Perishable vegetable products) | Food and feed processing | C Food manufacturing |
| E | Processing 3 (Products with long shelf life at ambient temperature) | Food and feed processing | C Food manufacturing |
| F | Feed production | Food and feed processing | D Animal feed production |
| G | Catering | Catering | E Catering |
| H | Distribution | Retail, transport and storage | F Distribution |
| I | Services | Auxiliary services | H Services |
| J | Transport and storage | Retail, transport and storage | G Provision of Transport and Storage Services |
| K | Equipment manufacturing | Auxiliary services | J Equipment manufacturing |
| L | (Bio)chemical manufacturing | (Bio)chemical | K Production of (Bio) Chemicals |
| M | Packaging material manufacturing | Auxiliary services | I Production of Food Packaging and Packaging Material |
In case of initial assessments ATS will grant accreditation just only if the assessment included at least one witnessing for each requested cluster, with at least one witnessing for a complete audit (phase 1 and phase 2).
ATS planned all activities that will be carried out in the upcoming period (change in the management system documents, training of assessors and persons participating in decision-making, update of surveillance activities) in order to harmonise the accreditation procedure in case of certification bodies providing certification of management systems as per the requirements of SRPS ISO/TS 22003:2015 and IAF MD16 document.