Communication requirements — telling your certification body within three working days
Plain-language summary
Serious events that threaten food safety, legality or the integrity of the certificate must be reported to your CB within three working days and handled through your emergency process.
What the clause is really asking
ISO 22000 8.4.2 asks you to prepare for emergencies; FSSC adds a reporting duty. Within three working days of the start of the event you must inform your certification body, and act through your emergency preparedness and response process, when a serious event affects the FSMS, legality or the integrity of the certification — force majeure, natural or man-made disasters such as war, strikes, terrorism, crime, floods, earthquakes or malicious hacking — or when the integrity of the certification is at risk or the Foundation could be brought into disrepute: public food safety events such as recalls, withdrawals and outbreaks; regulatory action requiring extra monitoring or a forced shutdown; legal proceedings, prosecutions, malpractice or negligence; and fraud or corruption.
What auditors look for
Auditors ask what happened in the last twelve months — recalls, regulatory visits, incidents — and whether the CB was told inside three working days. They check the emergency procedure names the trigger list and the CB contact.
Typical evidence
Emergency preparedness procedure naming the reportable events, the three-working-day rule and the CB contact; incident log with notification dates; correspondence with the CB; recall and withdrawal records
How to comply — recommendations
Add the reportable-event list and the three-working-day clock to your crisis or recall procedure, name who calls the CB, and log the notification time. Rehearse it in your annual mock recall.
Common nonconformities
Recall or regulatory action not reported to the CB, or reported late; procedure silent on the reporting duty; no record of who notified and when
Related clauses
ISO 22000 8.4.2 (handling of emergencies and incidents), 8.9.5 (withdrawal/recall), 7.4 (external communication)
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