ISO 22000 Food Safety Management for Packaging

ISO 22000:2018 integrates four key elements for food safety management: interactive communication along the food chain, system management (ISO management system structure), prerequisite programs (PRPs), and HACCP principles. For thin-wall packaging manufacturers, the standard requires establishing a food safety team with defined competencies, conducting a hazard analysis covering biological, chemical, physical, and allergen hazards (allergen cross-contact through shared packaging equipment is increasingly scrutinized), and implementing operational prerequisite programs (OPRPs) and CCPs to control identified hazards. ISO 22000 uses the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle aligned with the ISO High Level Structure shared with ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015, enabling integrated management system implementation. For HWAMDA SPV5 production facilities, the standard applies to all activities from PP resin procurement and incoming inspection through injection molding, IML decoration, downstream packaging, warehousing, and dispatch. The scope statement should clearly define your product categories (for example: injection-molded PP food containers) and applicable regulatory requirements (FDA 21 CFR, EU 10/2011, or local food contact regulations).

Conduct a comprehensive hazard analysis following Codex Alimentarius HACCP principles, identifying hazards at each process step in your SPV5 production line. Physical hazards: metal fragments from screw or barrel wear (control: inline metal detector at sensitivity of 1.5mm Fe, 2.0mm non-Fe), plastic contamination from degraded material (control: screen packs at 120 mesh, visual inspection), and foreign objects from the production environment (control: housekeeping PRPs, glass register). Chemical hazards: migration of non-food-grade additives (control: approved supplier list, food-contact compliance declarations), residual mold release agents (control: food-grade release agents only, application procedures), cleaning chemical residues (control: rinse verification procedures), and degraded material from excessive processing temperature (control: INOVA controller temperature monitoring with automatic alarm at setpoint plus 15°C). Biological hazards: microbial contamination from cooling water condensation on mold surfaces (control: water treatment, mold surface drying procedures), and mold growth in stored packaging (control: humidity monitoring below 65% RH in warehouse). Classify each hazard by severity and likelihood to determine whether it requires control through PRPs, OPRPs, or CCPs. Typically, metal detection is the only CCP for thin-wall packaging production.

FSSC 22000 (Food Safety System Certification) builds on ISO 22000 by adding specific requirements from ISO/TS 22002-4 for packaging and additional FSSC requirements. FSSC 22000 is benchmarked by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), meaning it satisfies the food safety certification requirements of virtually all major multinational food companies. The upgrade from ISO 22000 to FSSC 22000 requires: full implementation of ISO/TS 22002-4 prerequisite programs (many already covered if ISO 22000 is properly implemented), additional FSSC requirements including food defense (intentional contamination prevention), food fraud mitigation (verification of raw material authenticity), management of allergens, environmental monitoring, and product labeling. For packaging manufacturers, the food defense requirement involves conducting a vulnerability assessment of your facility and implementing controls such as access control to production areas, tamper-evident finished goods packaging, and visitor management procedures. The FSSC 22000 certificate is renewable every 3 years with annual surveillance audits. Certification cost for the FSSC upgrade beyond ISO 22000 adds $3,000-8,000 for the additional audit scope. HWAMDA recommends pursuing FSSC 22000 directly rather than ISO 22000 alone, as the incremental effort is modest and the market acceptance is significantly broader.

The INOVA controller on HWAMDA SPV5 machines provides built-in data logging that supports ISO 22000/FSSC 22000 documentation requirements. Configure the INOVA to log critical process parameters for each production batch: barrel temperatures (all 6-8 zones), injection speed and pressure profiles, holding pressure and time, cooling time, mold temperature, cycle time, shot count, and reject count. These records demonstrate process control for the hazard analysis verification requirements. Set up automatic alarms for parameter deviations that could affect food safety: barrel temperature exceeding the validated range (potential for material degradation generating chemical hazards), injection pressure exceeding the validated range (potential for excessive flash creating physical hazards), and cooling system temperature deviation (potential for inadequate cooling leading to part deformation and customer complaints). Export production data daily to the food safety management system database for retention. ISO 22000 requires records to be maintained for the product shelf life plus one year—for food packaging this typically means 3-5 years of record retention. The INOVA's USB data export function facilitates backup to network storage. During audits, the ability to retrieve complete process records for any production batch within minutes demonstrates effective system control and significantly improves auditor confidence.