The FSSC 22000 Foundation launched the FSSC 22000 version 4.1 of its international food safety and quality management system certification Scheme.

FSSC 22000 version 4 was released in December 2016.

In the months after publication there were several developments that influenced the drafting of FSSC 22000 version 4.1:

• The publication of GFSI Benchmarking Requirements document version 7.0 in March 2017 and version 7.1 in May and the expected release of version 7.2

• The evaluation of FSSC 22000 version 4.1 against European Accreditation (EA) procedure EA-1/22 led by the Dutch Accreditation Council (RvA)

• Need for clarification and correction of the text of FSSC 22000 version 4.0 due to feedback received from industry, certification and accreditation bodies.

The FSSC Board of Stakeholders has determined that all certified sites, shall be audited against version 4.1 starting from January 1, 2018.

Major Scheme requirement changes includes:

• The introduction of unannounced audits

• The inclusion of critical non-conformances

• Standardized templates for audit reports and certificates

• Revised close-out periods for non-conformances and submission of action plans

Major changes for Certified organizations includes:

• Food defense threat assessment

• Food fraud vulnerability assessment

• Product labelling

• Management of allergens

• Environmental monitoring

The new FSSC 22000 version 4.1 Scheme requirements can be downloaded by following the link:

http://www.fssc22000.com/documents/standards/downloads.xml?lang=en