The applicability of ISO 22000 food safety management system in tea factories

With the increase in competition among them, tea factories began to give the services they provide to make the production of higher quality and more secure tea according to a system and standard. It is observed that factory owners have increased the quality, hygiene and food safety of tea from procurement to packaging stages in order to meet the conscious and selective demands of today's consumers. In this process, the quality and hygiene personnel of the factory have important duties. In this study the applicability of ISO standards were analyzed in tea factories which have ISO 22000 Food Safety Management System certificate in Trabzon, Giresun and Rize. In this study, which has qualitative research model, interviews were conducted with the personnel responsible for the quality and hygiene in three factories having ISO 22000 Food Safety Management System certificate and pre-determined semi-structured research questions were asked. The data obtained were analyzed through content analysis method, and the categories and codes related to the sample of the study were formed. As a result of the study, it is thought that tea factories have some problems about food safety, and to solve those problems, business management should first believe in the benefits of ISO 22000. In addition, the kinds of problems that the participant factories have in the implementation of ISO 22000 standards were revealed. With the study it was concluded that ISO 22000 systems can be applied if basic facilities such as education, personnel, warehouses, and kitchen area are established by providing the necessary resources.