FSSC22000: New Guidance Document on transport tank cleaning
The Foundation has published a Guidance Document for FSSC 22000 certified organizations to include and control transport tank cleaning in their food safety management systems.
Foodstuffs are transported in bulk throughout the food supply chain. Unique to this kind of transportation is that foodstuff is unpacked and comes into direct physical contact with the transport equipment, which poses a potential food safety risk.
For this reason, the cleanliness of a tank or container is crucial to the food processing industry, and it ensures:
- the avoidance of cross contaminations with previous cargo,
- food safety and quality issues due to improper or insufficient hygiene,
- missing traceability, or
- misdeclarations in case of allergens from the previous load.
The FSSC 22000 Guidance Document is a guideline for the food industry to provide practical information and guidance on tanker cleaning relating to ISO 22000: 2018, ISO/TS 22002-5:2019, in context to relevant legislation and in line with the GFSI requirements. The document was developed by a working group consisting of representatives of food manufacturers, a tanker cleaning organization, and a storage and distribution organization.