Food Safety Made Simple: How ISO 22000 Stops Contamination Before It Starts

Every year, millions of people get sick from food that wasn't handled or processed safely — and most of it could've been prevented. That's where ISO 22000 steps in. It's the global standard that helps food businesses find risks before they become headlines. In this article, we'll break down the most common causes of foodborne illness and show how ISO 22000 stops them in their tracks.

First things first, what kind of things can cause illness from food?

1. Biological Contaminants

This is by far the most common and affects the biggest number of people. Biological contaminants in a food production system can affect consumers on mass and can be hard to detect which is why they are the most prevalent and the most dangerous.

• Salmonella – generally from undercooked poultry and from eggs
• E. coli – from raw beef, unpasturised milk and other contaminated product
• Listeria – commonly from deli meats or unpasteurized cheeses, although lettuce has been a recent contributor to this issue as Listeria monocytogenes can survive and thrive on leafy vegetables.
• Giardia – from contaminated water or undercooked meat
• Hepatitis A – from contaminated food, water or contact with infected food handlers

2. Chemical Contaminants

These can still affect large quantities of food but are not as common an issue:

• Pesticide residues – from spraying crops
• Food additives or preservatives – an issue if they are used improperly or incorrectly dosed
• Heavy metals - like mercury in fish
• Cleaning agents – sometimes left accidently on food contact surfaces 

3. Physical Contaminants

These are foreign objects such as metal, glass, plastic or hair that could cause injury. Less common and less likely to affect more than one person

That's Good to Know, but How Does ISO 22000 Help?

An integral part of ISO 22000 is Risk Analysis. A part of a business's food safety teams responsibilities is to analysis their processes from inwards goods through to consuming of finished products and identify where risk of these things is possible. A good risk assessment will consider likelihood and consequences and so should prioritise those areas with the highest risk first – this means biological contaminant risks within the process should automatically rank highest as they are most common and affect a wider range of people. The most energy and resources should therefore be put into minimizing or eliminating this risk. Then they will continue on down and work on solutions for risk throughout the process.

PRP's to the rescue!

The next thing in the ISO 22000 arsenal is PRPs (Pre Requisite Programmes). These are the foundations of a good Food Safety Management System and cover things like Pest Control, Personal Hygiene and Equipment Maintenance. All these things are going to put processes in place to minimize the exposure to contaminants in the first place. If staff are washing their hands and using sanitizer, pests are stopped before they can enter the plant and strict clean up processes post maintenance are followed, the chances of introducing a contaminant will be significantly lower.

HACCP for the win!

Once your foundations are in place with PRPs, HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) steps in like a vigilant security guard for your food production process. Its job? To identify the points in your operations where hazards are most likely to occur — whether it's a stage where bacteria could sneak in, a chemical risk during processing, or a physical contaminant that could end up in the final product.

HACCP doesn't just spot risks; it puts controls in place to prevent them from reaching consumers. For example, it might set a temperature check at a critical cooking stage, a cleaning routine for equipment after maintenance, or a monitoring step before packaging. By focusing on these "critical control points," HACCP ensures that the safety measures you've built into your system actually work in practice — stopping contaminants in their tracks before they ever leave your facility.

In short, PRPs lay the groundwork, and HACCP enforces it where it matters most — giving both businesses and consumers confidence that food is safe, every step of the way.

Legal and Other Requirements

Another part of ISO is the Legal and Other Requirements which requires businesses to understand the requirements of their produce and ability to sell. This will include things like having safe handling instructions, cooking guidelines, best before dates and storage requirements for their products – therefore educating the consumer on how to manage their food to ensure their own safety.

The Last Tool in the Toolbox

If somehow after all that, a nasty contaminant gets through to the end customer, ISO 22000 has a robust continuous improvement program requirement designed to ensure that if the worst happens, it will be tracked back, understood and improvements put in place to ensure that going forward there isn't a repeat of the problem.

Even with the best intentions, things can go wrong — that's why ISO 22000 is such a game changer. It gives you the tools to spot problems early, fix them fast, and stop them coming back.