Food safety is unforgiving — one failure can sicken people and end a business. ISO 22000 is the international standard for managing it across the whole supply chain, and its power comes from combining three things: the HACCP method, prerequisite programs, and a proper management system.
HACCP: the analytical core
Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) is the heart. You systematically identify biological, chemical, and physical hazards, then find the Critical Control Points (CCPs) — the steps where control is essential to prevent or eliminate a hazard. For each CCP you set critical limits (e.g., a cooking temperature), monitor them, and define the corrective action when a limit is breached.
Prerequisite programs (PRPs)
HACCP doesn't work in a vacuum. Prerequisite programs are the basic hygiene conditions that must already be in place — cleaning, pest control, facility maintenance, personal hygiene. ISO 22000 also introduces operational PRPs (OPRPs): controls that manage significant hazards but aren't full CCPs. Distinguishing CCPs from OPRPs is one of the standard's trickier, more important skills.
HACCP tells you where control is critical. The management system makes sure that control actually happens, every shift, and improves over time.
The management-system layer
Like ISO 9001, ISO 22000 uses the Annex SL structure — context, leadership, planning, support, operation, evaluation, improvement. This is what turns a HACCP plan on paper into a living system with leadership ownership, competence requirements, monitoring, and continual improvement.
Interactive communication: farm to fork
A distinctive ISO 22000 principle is interactive communication along the food chain. A safe product depends on suppliers, processors, distributors, and retailers all sharing relevant hazard information. The standard explicitly requires communication up and down the chain, because a hazard introduced anywhere can reach the consumer.
Who it's for
Any organization in the food chain — growers, manufacturers, packaging makers, transporters, retailers, caterers, even equipment and cleaning-chemical suppliers. If what you do can affect food safety, ISO 22000 applies.
Master food safety management
My ISO 22000 course covers HACCP, PRPs and OPRPs, the management-system requirements, and the certification path — for the person responsible for food safety.
View the ISO 22000 course →Questions
Is ISO 22000 the same as HACCP?
No — HACCP is the hazard-analysis method; ISO 22000 incorporates HACCP inside a full, certifiable management system with leadership, communication, and continual improvement.
What's the difference between a CCP and an OPRP?
A CCP has a measurable critical limit at a step essential to control a hazard; an OPRP manages a significant hazard through control measures that don't have a single critical limit at one step.