First Stage Audit of FSSC 22000

Its been so interesting to face an audit for system certification though its not your first time attending an audit. Its always like an exam. Though you face exams all through your school studies all the exams you will be feeling as if you are facing the exam for the first time with little bit of fear.

Coming to first stage audit of FSSC 22000- Food Safety Standard Certification, it is all about checking preparatory level for the second stage audit. All the clauses of ISO 22000 and ISO 22002 will be covered along with the additional requirement of FSSC 22000 but not deep. For all the clauses, only the preparatory level will be checked and not the effectiveness of implementation. So basically it is a documentation audit to check your procedures, policies, methods etc.,

Important things checked

1. All PRPs- for ISO 22002, preparatory level and how well the organisation ready to improve with all PRPs
2. Policies- Food Safety Objectives- SMART objectives
3. Food Safety Team- Food Safety Team Leader
4. Food Safety Manual and Document pyramid
5. All Mandatory Procedures- Recall and withdrawl, documentation, record control, Internal Audit, Management Review
6. Some extra procedures- Emergency prepardeness, Resource Management etc
7. Management review and internal audit record
8. PRPs-verification and evaluation record
9. HACCP- Flow chart, Hazard analysis, and Control Measure analysis documents
10. Validation of all control measures- document
11. Outsourced service activities- specifications

If all the documents are ready you will easily pass the first stage audit of FSSC 22000 without any problem.

Second stage audit is more difficult when auditors check if all the above documents and methods are implemented properly or not.

Pragash