Record retention period for ISO 22000 Certification

Dear IFSQN Members,

I want to know how to define the record retention period in a company which is opting fo ISO 22000. Is there any standard reference for this or any legal requirement.

Regards,
Siddhu

Dear siddhu,

ISO 22000 doesn´t have any reference for retention times.

It depend on the kind of document, and local regulations, if I do remember well, here we have to keep track of 5 years of some documents for fiscal reasons, some of them help us keep traceability.

I think the most important would be records related to control measures and traceability. I do not have the ISO 22005 standard, but maybe there is a reference of holding time for some documents.

Regards,

FSSM

ISO 22000 does not specify records retention you just need to define a period, be able to explain why you chose the period and be able to show that you follow your rule.

As FSSM states you should start with regulatory requirements for your area or customer requirements. It will also depend on your product. If your shelf life is very short than retention time may be short. If you have something with a long shelf life than your records may need a longer retention period.

TS

Record retention period may be equal to shelf life of the product

sachin

Record retention period may be equal to shelf life of the product

sachin

And perhaps a little more to be on the safe side.

I know Kraft foods want their suppliers to retain due diligence documentation for 7 years. So it is important to satisfy your customers requirements as TSmith mentions. It can get quite complicated having several different retention times for documents, so if possible it should be standardised at the longest period to satisfy customer, legal and product requirements. Depending on space.

Regards,
Simon

Maybe this extract can serve as guidance.

According to the Federal Register of 1994 "FDA has changed the record retention
requirements in § 1.360(b) of this final rule to require record retention for: (1)
6 months for food for which a significant risk of spoilage, loss of value, or loss of palatability occurs within 60 days after the date you receive or release the food; (2) 1 year for food for which a significant risk of spoilage, loss of value, or loss of palatability occurs only after a minimum of 60 days, but within 6 months, after the date you receive or release the food; and (3) 2 years for food for which a significant risk of spoilage,
loss of value, or loss of palatability does not occur sooner than 6 months after the
date you receive or release the food, including foods preserved by freezing, dehydrating, or being placed in a hermetically sealed container."