When a bakery or food manufacturer qualifies a new packaging supplier, the quality team usually asks one of the first questions: is the supplier certified to ISO 22000? This article explains what the standard is, what it means for packaging that touches food, and how to read a supplier’s certificate.
What ISO 22000 is
ISO 22000 is the international standard for food safety management systems. The current edition, ISO 22000:2018, sets out how an organisation in the food chain identifies food safety hazards, controls them and proves that the controls work. It applies to every organisation in that chain, from farms and ingredient suppliers to food manufacturers, logistics companies and the producers of food packaging.
The standard combines three elements:
- HACCP principles. Hazards are analysed at each process step, critical control points are defined, and each one is monitored with clear limits and corrective actions.
- Prerequisite programmes. The basic conditions for safe production: hygiene, pest control, cleaning, maintenance, staff practices and control of incoming materials.
- A management system. Documented processes, responsibilities, internal audits, management review and continual improvement, built on the same high-level structure as ISO 9001.
Why it matters for packaging
Packaging is not food, but it is in direct contact with it. A baking tray goes into the oven with the product and stays with it until the consumer opens the pack. That makes the packaging plant part of the food safety chain. The hazards are specific:
- Physical: fibres, dust, fragments of board, metal or plastic from machinery.
- Chemical: migration of substances from paper, adhesives, inks or barrier layers into the food, and contamination from lubricants or cleaning agents.
- Biological: contamination from pests, poor hygiene or damp storage.
An ISO 22000 system requires the packaging producer to identify these hazards for its own processes and to control them, from incoming paper to the finished, packed tray.
ISO 22000, ISO/TS 22002-4 and FSSC 22000
Three names often appear together in packaging audits:
- ISO 22000 is the management system standard described above.
- ISO/TS 22002-4 specifies the prerequisite programmes for food packaging manufacturing in detail.
- FSSC 22000 is a certification scheme that combines ISO 22000 with the relevant ISO/TS 22002 part and additional requirements. It is benchmarked by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), which many large retailers and food brands require.
When your customers require GFSI-recognised certification across the supply chain, check which scheme each packaging supplier holds.
ISO 22000 and ISO 9001 together
ISO 9001 manages quality: consistent processes, documented specifications and corrective action when something drifts. ISO 22000 manages food safety: hazards and their controls. A packaging producer certified to both runs one integrated system that answers two questions for every batch: was it made to specification, and is it safe for food contact?
How to read a supplier’s certificate
- Scope. Check that the scope covers the products you buy and the site that produces them.
- Validity. Certificates are issued for a fixed period with surveillance audits in between. Confirm the expiry date.
- Certification body. Prefer certificates issued by an accredited body.
- Food contact compliance. ISO 22000 covers how food safety is managed. Material compliance, such as US FDA rules or EU Regulation 1935/2004, is documented separately, usually in a declaration of compliance.
How Oven Kraft applies it
Oven Kraft trays are produced under Convertech’s ISO 9001 and ISO 22000 management systems, from food-contact compliant materials. Every new application is also qualified on the customer’s own line, because a certificate describes how trays are made, and a line trial shows how they perform with your product. Read more on our quality page, or request the documents your quality team needs.
