Dr. Adel Younis Quality consultant

Quality Tip 6.

The main concern: International ISO standard 22000:2005.

Q. is it possible to get an organization providing the service of Pest control, to be

certified in applying the food safety management system, according to the

international ISO 22000?

Ans.

Although it was already done for two of my recent clients working the field of pest

control services, that they got certified with the international certificate of applying

the FSMS according to the ISO 22000, however, a number of questions among the

society of quality professionals in Egypt was raised recently to ensure the possibility

of getting such organizations such certificate.

In order to explain how can we manage the standard to our benefit and get such

organizations certified and applying such sophisticated system, for the welfare of

the organization, and the society, we’ve to

1) Understand the main intended objective of establishing the standard.

2) Understanding the rejection point of view.

3) Explaining the techniques of implementing the FSMS in a pest control service

provision organization.

1- The main objective of the International ISO Standard, 22000:2005, is to

ensure the safety of the food at the end point, “ the user / consumer”, and

on this auspices, it dedicates all its clauses to cover all over the food chain of

involved in the food production cycle , this was added to the lateral service

provision , whatever it is feed or corps producers , food retails, restaurants ,

and so on,,,, this is the main concept of delivering a safe food to the

consumer , on agreeing with this statement , can we imagine that any of the

above involved parties in the food chain can afford not hiring or at lease

dedicated a specialized person to look after all the issues related to the pest

control ? , a very direct and straight answer , no , it is very important that all

the pests , with all of its types are controlled at all of the above mentioned

points of relation to the food chain, in order to meet the requirement of the

international standard , or, in the contrary imagine that you’ve dining with

your family in a restaurant with no guarantee of its cleanliness, or

sanitization, and / or finding a cockroach laying in your plate ,,,, enjoy it.

2- The rejection point of view, mainly concerning that the whole international

standard has no single clause or sub-clause indicated the issue of pest

Dr. Adel Younis Quality consultant

control , or any other related subject to it, which means that it is not

included in the food chain concerned in the standard, however this point is

covered by the concept of having all involved parties , even the service

providers to the food chain , or how can we explain the concern for example

of the standard with the vehicles used to distribute the food,,, it is included in

the food chain, and it is needed to be controlled by the standard, where it is

not included directly in the clauses of the standard.

3- The techniques of applying a FSMS, according to the requirements of the ISO

standard, depends mainly on the requirements of the standard, mainly this

standard consists of a group of clauses , defining the main requirements,

however the main sophisticated requirements of the standard is to have in

place the following programs:

- PRP

- Ops. PRP

- HACCP.

Regarding the above mentioned programs needed by the standard to be

implemented in the organization , and referring to any pest control organization,

simply the question is , can they apply these programs in place or not ?

In order to answer this questions, we’ve to understand the meaning the programs

to explain if it is possible or not, and in brief, the above mentioned programs mainly

depends on making a systematic risk assessment program in the organization

operations, and identifying the critical control points, and identifying a simplified

control program to ensure that all these parameters are under control , then

making monitoring of the obtained results.

If we keep in mind the fact that any type of organization, not only the ones which is

dealing with the services of pest control , simply means that it is possible to get a

service provider having certified in ISO 22000 standard as I did in my two clients

getting the certificate, and doing very great.

And one more final thing, is the professionalism and experience of the consultant

planning and implementing the system to the client’s operators, at which if the

system was planned from the beginning, and , monitored during implementation

very well with an expert candidate this for sure will guarantee the success of the

applied system.