Issue 35 – February 2012

Safer food farming is the principal benefit targeted by a new International Organization for Standardization (ISO) technical specification Prerequisite programmes on food safety – Part 3: Farming, ISO/TS 22002-3:2011. Farms are the first link in many supply chains that bring food to the kitchen table and ISO/TS 22002-3 helps to ensure that farmers implement best practice to maintain a hygienic environment and play their part in controlling food safety hazards in food chains.

'The chain from farm to fork may be a long one, even global in scale, involving many different participants,' comments Dominique Berget, leader of the ISO team that developed the new technical specification. 'Therefore, it's important to ensure food safety right from the very first link, which is often the farm. ISO/TS 22002-3 provides state-of-art requirements and guidance for getting this right.'

Food safety management systems and prerequisite programmes

ISO 22002-3 is part of the ISO 22000 series of Standards, which covers food safety management systems.

• Support documents within the ISO 22000 series provide requirements for food safety prerequisite programmes (PRPs). PRPs address the basic conditions and activities to ensure hygiene throughout the food chain during production, handling, and provision of food safe for human consumption.
  
  
• ISO/TS 22002-3 is the latest PRP support document in the ISO 22000 series and specifies the requirements and guidelines to design, implement, and document PRPs for farming.

ISO/TS 22002-3:

• will be useful for all organisations, including individual farms or groups of farms, regardless of size or complexity, that are involved in the farming step of the food chain and wish to implement PRPs in accordance with Food safety management systems – Requirements for any organization in the food chain ISO 22000:2005, the Standard that gives the basic requirements for food safety management.
  
  
• applies to the farming of crops (for example, cereals, fruits, and vegetables), living farm animals (for example, cattle, poultry, pigs, and fish) and the handling of their products (for example, milk and eggs).
  
  
• includes all operations related to farming within its scope (for example, sorting, cleaning, packing of unprocessed products, on-farm feed manufacturing, and transport within the farm).
  
  
• includes specific examples of PRPs, although these are for guidance only since farming operations are diverse in nature according to size, type of products, production methods, geographical and biological environment, and related statutory and regulatory requirements and so on.

→ Order ISO/TS 22002-3:2011 (hard copy) Prerequisite programmes on food safety – Part 3: Farming

→ You can order PDFs of ISO Standards by calling 0800 782 632 during business hours or emailing enquiries@standards.co.nz.

Related Standards

• ISO 22000:2005 Food safety management systems – Requirements for any organization in the food chain

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