What is FSSC 22000 certification and why is it worth obtaining?

Food manufacturers seeking certification recognised by retail chains worldwide are increasingly turning to FSSC 22000. It is a system that combines the solid foundation of the ISO 22000 standard with industry-specific prerequisites and additional scheme requirements – creating a standard that is fully recognised by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) and regarded as equivalent to BRCGS Food Safety or IFS Food.

What is FSSC 22000 and where does it come from?

FSSC 22000 (Food Safety System Certification) is a certification scheme developed by the independent Food Safety Certification Foundation (FSSC Foundation) with the support of leading industry organisations, including FoodDrinkEurope, which brings together companies such as Danone, Nestlé and Unilever. The standard was first recognised by the GFSI in 2010 – meaning that FSSC 22000 certification is mutually recognised by retail chains alongside BRCGS and IFS Food, without the need for separate second-party audits.

The current version is FSSC 22000 v6, published in April 2023. The mandatory transition period from version 5.1 to version 6 ran from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025 – all certified companies were required to update their systems and undergo a transition audit during this time. Today, over 31,000 companies worldwide hold FSSC 22000 certification, making it one of the most widely used food safety standards globally.

System structure – the three pillars of certification

FSSC 22000 is not a single document, but a system comprising three mutually complementary elements.

ISO 22000:2018 forms the foundation – a food safety management system standard setting out requirements for HACCP, prerequisite programmes (PRPs), communication within the supply chain and continuous improvement. A company that already holds ISO 22000 certification has a solid starting point for FSSC 22000 certification.

Industry-specific technical specifications (ISO/TS 22002-x) set out the PRP requirements for specific sectors of activity. For food manufacturers, this is ISO/TS 22002-1; for food packaging manufacturers, ISO/TS 22002-4; and for food service and catering, ISO/TS 22002-2. The choice of the appropriate specification depends on the product category to which the facility is assigned.

The additional requirements of the FSSC scheme comprise a set of requirements that go beyond ISO 22000; these distinguish FSSC 22000 from the ISO standard itself and confer upon it GFSI-recognised status. They include food safety culture, food defence, food fraud, supplier oversight, environmental monitoring and allergen management. It is precisely these requirements that most often need to be addressed by companies transitioning from ISO 22000 to FSSC 22000.

Who it applies to and what benefits it offers

FSSC 22000 is aimed at food manufacturers and processors, food packaging manufacturers, catering and food service companies, and – in version 6 – at companies trading in food products via e-commerce. Version 6 has expanded the scope of certification to include new categories, including activities involving harvested crops (category BIII), the processing of animal carcasses (category C0) and catering services under category E.

The certificate is issued for a period of three years, with mandatory annual surveillance audits. For companies that export or work with international retail chains, FSSC 22000 is equivalent to BRCGS and IFS Food – which, in practice, eliminates the need to obtain multiple certificates for different clients. For companies already holding ISO 22000 certification, the path to FSSC certification is relatively short – it requires supplementing the existing system with the scheme’s additional requirements and the relevant technical specifications, without the need to build a system from scratch.