Food safety involves the elimination of chemical, physical and biological factors that cause food-borne diseases in various production processes, from raw material to product to consumers. In these processes, food safety draws attention with its objective and subjective dimensions. When objective food safety is mentioned, researchers and experts evaluate the risks arising in foodstuffs. When subjective food safety is mentioned, it is meant the safety of foodstuffs perceived by consumers. These two dimensions of food safety are extremely effective in reaching consumers for safe food.

Consumers are skeptical about processed foods due to negative developments in recent years and deliberate or inadvertent inaccuracies and incomplete information. However, a significant portion of food-borne diseases, manufacturers and retailers do not pay enough attention to the issue of food safety and food production is caused by adverse production conditions.

Special food safety standards are important to ensure safe food production conditions. The most commonly used standard for this purpose is the FSSC 22000 standard. The FSSC 22000 Food Safety Management System introduces a systematic approach to identifying and controlling chemical, physical and biological impacts that affect food safety. This standard enables food manufacturers to identify potential hazards that could compromise food safety, identify critical control points, and thus eliminate or at least mitigate risks.

The FSSC 22000 standard allows the control of different production stages such as preparation, production, packaging and distribution of foodstuffs separately. FSSC 22000 system has been a new management system that covers the deficits of the system since the ISO 22000 Food Safety Management System, which was previously implemented, does not meet the prerequisite programs in food safety.

Meanwhile, the FSSC 22000 standard (Food Safety System Certification) has become one of the few standards recognized by the GFIS (Global Food Safety Initiative). This organization carries out the works to gather the food safety standards under one roof. Other food standards recognized by GFIS include:

 

  • IFS (International Food Standard)
  • BRC (British Retail Consorsium Standard)
  • GlobalGAP (EurepGAP) (Standard of Good Agricultural Practices in Retail Sector)