The safety of food stuffs is a worldwide concern. Not just for the protection of consumer health, but also the continues effect food safety has on international trade. Effective management systems for food safety must result in save and sound food stuffs. Many countries require an HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) approach in their legislation for food processing companies.
In 1996 a group of Certification Bodies in the Netherlands developed a standard for food safety management, 'The Requirements for a HACCP based Food Safety System'.
The first version of this standard was published on 15 May 1996 by the National Board of Experts HACCP, a group of experts on Food Safety representing all parties in the (Dutch) food chain. Currently more than 1900 certificates are issued by the associated Certification Bodies.
Summarising the major strong aspects of 'The Requirements for a HACCP based Food Safety System':
The National Board of Experts HACCP published the 4rd version of the 'Requirements' in April of 2007. The fourth version contains all relevant elements of the ISO 22000 standard that is being developed by the ISO-organisation. SCV as well as the National Board of Experts HACCP were actively involved in the ISO 22000 committee working on this standard.