ISO 22000: Management Review

Management Review

The management review is the review of food safety management system to ensure its continuing suitability, adequacy and effectiveness. The review also facilitates the assessment of opportunities for improvement and the need for change to the system, including the food safety policy. This review should take place at planned intervals. In the early stages of implementation, these intervals may be shorter than when the system is mature. Top management must review the performance of the food safety management system at planned intervals. The purpose of these reviews is to improve the effectiveness, suitability and adequacy of the system.

All companies have management meetings, but the management review is more than that. The function of management review is a high-level review to determine whether the FSMS is effective and efficient. How a management review is conducted varies with the size of the company. Small companies are now being required to implement management review in response to the requirements of GFSI-recognized audit schemes. In small companies, one person typically wears many hats. In a large company, the workload will be divided. One hint to better understand the management system and to create the foundation for the management review is to define who is responsible for managing each of the areas that comprise the FSMS. The job descriptions for each of these individuals must define their responsibilities within the FSMS. In addition, it is a good idea to create a single document that lists all the food safety areas and have each responsible person sign that list. This allows top management to better understand who is doing what, but will also help an auditor better understand who manages what. All of these persons will have a role in the management review.

The first review should precede the implementation of the food safety management system and focus on the approval of the food safety team’s proposals. Management should then adopt a programme of planned reviews. The frequency of these is likely to depend upon the nature of the organization and the scope and complexity of the system. This programme would probably commence with a review of the effectiveness of the new system, after the first round of internal audits. In addition, your organization may consider management reviews during the implementation of the system, to ensure its effectiveness.

When preparing for a management review, each person will be responsible for collating and analyzing the information related to food safety prior to the meeting. This information should include information from third-party audits, internal audit issues, quality issues, deviations from the HACCP plan, assessments of the results of verification activities, assessment of continual improvement activities that affect food safety, customer/consumer complaints, regulatory concerns, new technical data that affect their areas, emergency issues, “near misses” or other findings. Each manager, whether he/she is responsible for one area or many, will then bring this analysis to the review. In addition, the managers should bring ideas for further improving the FSMS to the meeting. Ideally, they should also conduct a preliminary evaluation of the potential benefits of the proposed change (i.e., a risk assessment of the proposed change).

The review will be convened and led by top management. Records or minutes of the meeting will be maintained. The presentations will focus on providing management with an overview of how the FSMS is being maintained, problems that have occurred and how the FSMS can be improved. The improvement plans will be evaluated by the management team. They should be prioritized based on potential risk to the business and those proposals that have the greatest potential benefits for the business should be targeted for implementation. One of the outputs of the meeting should be not only the selection of possible improvements, but establishing timelines for completion, assignment of resources to do the work and establishing responsibility for managing the program. The management review, therefore, becomes a tool for continual improvement.

The input to a management review must be sufficient to enable top management to assess whether or not the food safety management system meets its stated objectives. The results of the review must be recorded

ISO 22000 specifies that the management review should include:

1. Follow-up actions from previous management reviews;
2. Analysis of results of verification activities;
3. Changes in circumstances that can affect food safety;
4. Emergency situations, accidents and withdrawals;
5. Review of results of system-updating activities;
6. Review of communication activities, including customer feed-back;
7. Review of external audits or inspections.
8. The effectiveness of these reviews can be demonstrated by the minutes of the meetings.

The output of the management review must demonstrate that top management has taken decisions or other actions related to the assurance of food safety.

The management review minutes should include decisions or other actions on:

1. The assurance of food safety;
2. Improvement of the effectiveness of the food safety management system;
3. Resource needs;
4. Revisions of the organization’s food safety policy and related objectives.