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

Resources for this clause

• ArticleFSSC 22000 Version 7 explained: what changed, the dates that matter, and how to prepare for the upgrade audit
• Free downloadFSSC 22000 V7 Gap ChecklistEvery change from FSSC 22000 Version 6 to Version 7 as a tracked project — V6 audits end on 30 April 2027, and this is the file that gets a site to its upgrade audit with the evidence ready.
• Free masterclass · ~18 minFSSC 22000 V7 MasterclassV6 audits end 30 April 2027. Every V7 change clause by clause — the new ISO 22002 family, allergen testing, culture evidence, fraud/defence competence, food loss & waste targets — and a 90-day plan.