Compari̇son of food safety management systems implemented i̇n food producti̇on chai̇ns

Countries in which there is no problem with food procurement and where the production and consumption of food follows a general standard, the most important problem is the food safety and hyegiene. Apart from its relevance for the public health, this issue has become a matter of market competition among food companies. Today, conscientious societies are demanding the food products to be healthy in terms of production processes and ingredients, while at the same time demanding access to all sorts of information regarding them. The companies respond to this call by certifying their products regarding food safety and hygiene through various certifications. Since the purpose of this study is to compare the Food Safety Management Systems commonly applied in food production plants, the standards of the said systems (ISO 22000:2005, BRC version 7 and IFS version 6) are used as the main substance of this study. In this direction, a copy of ISO 22000:2005 was obtained from TSE firstly and is transmitted in the study in a plain manner as much as possible. Then, BRC version 7 and IFS version 6 was downloaded from their websites and are added to the study accordingly. Among the three standards made use of in this study, 13 topic are found to be fit for comparison. These topics are shown in the section entitled Findings (tr.Bulgular) in chart format, and the differences of them are indicated therein. In addition, in order to provide information regarding the food safety management systems used in industrial institutions, the database of the Food Companies who have membership to relevant Trade Committees in Istanbul Chamber of Industry were utilized in the study. To research the food safety management systems in industrial institutions, a questionnaire comprising of 12 questions has been prepared. 228 companies were contacted, 70 of which were able to provide some information and among the latter group, 67 companies were found fit for assessment. The result of the survey, according to which 8 companies have only HACCP system without any additional certification, indicates that the change from HACCP system to ISO 22000 has not taken place in many companies. Due to companies using HACCP as if it is a different standard, the issues of transition of HACCP to ISO 22000 and the points at which the two standards differ have been dealt with and the enlightenment of the food sector on these issues is aimed in this study. İt is emphasized that the ISO 22000 and HACCP have to be thought as two different standards. As a result of the comparison between BRC, IFS and ISO 22000, it is observed that while BRC and IFS are wider in scope and more in line with one another, ISO 22000 narrower in scope than these two standards. ISO 22000 is seen to be dealing with many of the topics in a more general framework, aside from excluding many issues worked out in BRC and IFS. These topics are: assessment for and determination of foreign substance, customer complaints, product analysis and audit protocol. The issue of audits is the most significant among the issues left out. It is seen that BRC and IFS standards have given a section about the scope and the application of audits and that BRC has given a more detailed treatment of the issue of audits than the IFS standard, marking the audit, the requirement of which will be applied, according to its way of procedure. According to the results, it is deduced that: BRC and IFS are not proper for all production chains, while the today's highly valued ISO 22000 is catering a sort of food safety that is based upon customer demands. The common denominator of these three standards are the Prerequisite programs(tr.ÖGP), the use of HACCP system and the tractability. Another difference of BRC and IFS from ISO 22000 is that procedures rather than results have the foundational role in the former two. BRC and IFS are intended for distributors, while ISO 22000 is intended for producers. The most important common denominator of the three standards is the intention to serve safe and reliable product to the consumer. Key words: Food safety, ISO 22000, HACCP, BRC, IFS, Prerequisite programs