Hello,
Could anyone help me? I am in process of transition the QS towards ISO 22000. My company (ingredients for dairy industry) has 3 production plants, and each of them has different way of explanation of care zones. I would like to unify this according to ISO 22000. I would be extremely grateful for some tips and tools for designation of high, medium and low care zones. 
Natalia86
Dear Natalia,
As far as i am aware, ISO22000 makes no use of this concept. And also no explicit use of high/medium/low risk categories.
If you look at some of the threads in this forum, it seems one popular origin of the "high care" concept was for chilled, RTE foods. Subsequently the idea has been further interpreted / expanded by some users.
AFAIK, no quantitative definition of these terms exists. I would guess the BRC food standard probably makes the most use of the concept among widely used international documents. Some companies do make an attempt at a form of rationalisation based on risk assessment.
Maybe yr life will become more simplified without it in the near future although the added annoyance of OPRP will probably neutralise any benefit. I suppose it may depend on the product sensitivity but some of the expectations related to high care can be quite extensive, eg this extract from a text on food hygiene auditing -
It is pertinent to remember that a canteen supplying food to staff working in high care areas could easily become the source of food poisoning into the factory if not tightly managed and effectively supervised by trained personnel. High care operators should remove all their overalls prior to using the canteen facility, and preferably take their meals in a designated high care canteen, which is separate from the low care operators.
(Also seems to be suggesting that non-high care operators do not need to remove their overalls ?
)
Rgds / Charles.C
