Choices and combinations of quality, HACCP and safety standards in the food manufacturing sector

The International Standards Organisation (ISO) 9001 standard facilitates the implementation of a quality management system which in its early infancy was the only standard available to food manufacturers for standardisation purposes. With the introduction of Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) systems and more recently the promotion of ISO 22000 which are more appropriate for food manufacturers has created some anxiety as to what standards to implement. Some ISO 9001 food manufacturing organisations are considering implementing ISO 22000 food standard as a replacement for ISO 9001, some are just adding SANS 10330, a HACCP standard, whilst some want to implement ISO 22000 as an additional standard. This paper reports on an investigation of the choice of standards that management prefers. The study consists of comparative analyses of the standards, an empirical determination of management's preferred choices of standards or combinations of standards and the study of the implementation of ISO 22000 at the Mhlume Sugar Factory in Swaziland (Royal Swazi Sugar Corporation). The findings shows that an ISO 9001 certified organisation can add SANS 10330 and be equivalent to ISO 22000 depending on customer and market requirements. It is also shown that management have the least preference for ISO 9001 only, and prefer both ISO 9001 and ISO 22000 certificates. The greatest preference was for an integrated ISO 9001 and ISO 22000 system. The implementation at Mhlume shows that the ISO 9001 system can be combined with the ISO 22000 system. The benefit of this contribution is to inform management of the similarities and differences between quality, HACCP and food safety systems and the possibility of combining them.