SQF Certified getting ISO 22000 Certifications from Broker

We are currently SQF Certified. Our purchaser is wanting to push through an ISO 22000 certification for a Broker. I'm uneasy doing this. ISO 22000 doesn't do Food Fraud or allergen management. Is it ok to accept this or should I fight it?

Depends on your program.  SQF doesn't implicitly require suppliers to have a GFSI audit, but it gets us through a lot of the other side steps required should a supplier not be GFSI certified.  If your program requires all suppliers to have a GFSI audit in food standing, then the answer is a hard no: you'd need to get necessary approvals to amend your program first.  You then could define what your company needs to do to approve suppliers who lack a GFSI cert.  Review of their audit to see what programs it lacks (as you've done) is a start.  You could ask for their programs to audit them virtually, see if they'll provide supporting evidence the programs are under control.  Then run them through your risk assessment to see if the additional steps you took are sufficient to control hazards based on what you're approving them to sell to you.

Hi C_Custer,

Not ideal, I would think there is limited value to ISO 22000 certification for a Broker, certainly the requirements of the standard don’t fit well with the nature of that business.

ISO 22000:2018 Food safety management systems — Requirements for any organization in the food chain 1 Scope describes more typical food sector categories/scopes:

Organizations that are directly or indirectly involved include, but are not limited to, feed producers, animal food producers, harvesters of wild plants and animals, farmers, producers of ingredients, food manufacturers, retailers, and organizations providing food services, catering services, cleaning and sanitation services, transportation, storage and distribution services, suppliers of equipment, cleaning and disinfectants, packaging materials and other food contact materials.

The one thing I will say is that the scope of ISO 22000 includes the following so you should probably look to address your concerns with the contractual arrangements your purchasing department agree with the Broker.

This document specifies requirements for a food safety management system (FSMS) to enable an organization that is directly or indirectly involved in the food chain:

c) to evaluate and assess mutually agreed customer food safety requirements and to demonstrate conformity with them;

Kind regards,

Tony