Ensuring Food Safety from Farm to Fork - The Importance of ISO 22000 in Sri Lanka

Food safety doesn’t begin inside a processing plant and end as a product leaves the supermarket. Food products can be exposed to hazards during farming, harvesting, receiving, processing, packaging, storage, transportation, retail, and preparation. Thus, the management of those risks must be coordinated across the food chain.

This is especially true for food businesses in Sri Lanka, where regulatory requirements, customer expectations, and international food-safety practices are constantly changing. The food-control system in Sri Lanka is based on the Food Act No. 26 of 1980, under which more than 30 regulations have been gazetted, according to the Food Control Administration Unit of the country. The authority also has the responsibility of controlling domestic food, controlling imports, and issuing certificates of export for food items.

In this context, ISO 22000 certification offers a systematic approach to organizations in developing, implementing, maintaining, and continually improving a food safety management system.

What Is ISO 22000?

ISO 22000 is the international standard for food safety management systems. ISO 22000:2018 is a set of requirements for any organization within the food chain and integrates the principles of food-safety management and prerequisite programs with interactive communication and the principles of HACCP.

It has broad scope. The standard is intended for use by primary producers, food manufacturers, ingredient suppliers, transport and storage operators, retailers, caterers, and other organizations in the food chain.

As of September 2026, ISO 22000:2018 remains the published standard. A climate action amendment for ISO 22000:2018 is available for 2024. ISO is also working on a new edition, ISO/DIS 22000, which is under development. So the draft should not be presented as the current certification standard.

This difference is relevant when a Sri Lankan organization prepares its FSMS. Certification planning should be based on the applicable published requirements and monitor formally issued revisions and amendments.

How Does ISO 22000 Support Food Safety from Farm to Fork?

The fundamental concept of ISO 22000 for food safety is to control the food chain rather than depending on the inspection of the final product.

1. Control of raw materials and primary production

Hazards to food safety can occur before raw materials arrive at the plant. Agricultural inputs, water, harvesting practices, animal-related hazards, environmental contamination, and handling conditions may influence the safety of ingredients.

Hence, an effective FSMS needs good controls over incoming materials and relevant suppliers. The business should set out clear specifications, methods for evaluating suppliers, criteria for receiving, and records to demonstrate that incoming materials meet defined requirements.

It can also strengthen coordination with farmers and producer networks for Sri Lankan food exporters. According to the Sri Lanka Export Development Board, large companies in the food export industry can collaborate with farms and clusters of farmers who follow Good Agricultural Standards and organic farming methods, among others, to improve the quality of raw materials.

2. Processing and manufacture

Hazards in a food-processing facility can be biological, chemical, or physical. The organization must identify which hazards are significant and the control measures appropriate.

This is where HACCP comes into play. HACCP is a systematic, science-based approach to identify specific hazards and measures for their control, according to Codex. Its principles are hazard analysis, identification of critical control points, establishment of critical limits, monitoring, corrective action, verification, and documentation.

ISO 22000 for food safety provides a broader management system for these hazard control activities. That means the business needs defined responsibilities, communication, documented information, verification, and continual improvement too.

3. Transportation, warehousing, and distribution

A food product that was safe at the time of manufacture can become unsafe if controls in storage or transportation are not maintained.

For example, temperature-sensitive foods are a practical example. If a temperature condition is required and not maintained, the organization requires a defined monitoring process, records, action criteria, and procedures for handling deviations.

ISO 22002 standards are sector-specific prerequisite-programme requirements that complement the ISO 22000 framework. The latest food safety information from ISO includes 2025 editions covering food manufacturing, catering, food packaging, and transport and storage.

ISO 22000 and Sri Lanka's Food-Safety Framework

Sri Lanka ISO 22000 is used in conjunction with the national food law. It is not to be taken as a substitute for statutory compliance.

Food Act No. 26 of 1980—Regulates manufacture, importation, sale, and distribution of food in Sri Lanka. The Act, among other things, forbids the manufacture or sale of food that is unfit for human consumption and the preparation, preservation, packaging, or storage of food for sale under insanitary conditions.

According to the Food Control Administration Unit, the Food (Registration of Premises) Regulations 2019, which came into force on 1 January 2020, require food establishments to register with the relevant food authority.

The regulatory environment in Sri Lanka is also shifting. The official Food Control Administration Unit lists the Food (Labelling and Advertising) Regulations 2026 among existing regulations, while draft regulations currently under development are listed separately.

Therefore, an organization implementing ISO 22000 should have a process for identifying and reviewing applicable legal, regulatory, and customer requirements.

Key Components of an ISO 22000 Food Safety Management System

A good implementation of the ISO 22000 standard should connect the documentation to the real shop floor activities.

Prerequisite Courses

PRPs lay down the basic hygiene and operational conditions for the safe production of food. These may include cleaning and sanitation, pest control, personal hygiene, condition of facilities, maintenance of equipment, storage practices, and control of incoming materials.

Codex identifies good hygiene practices as the basis of food-hygiene systems.

HACCP and Hazard Analysis

The organization identifies hazards in products, processes, and activities, evaluates their significance, and implements appropriate controls.

At critical control points, defined monitoring and evidence that controls are working as intended where applicable. Codex is particularly concerned with monitoring and documentation at CCPs.

Communication

Food safety information needs to be shared between interested parties. Each of these groups—suppliers, production teams, quality staff, logistics providers, and customers—might possess information that impacts food safety.

This is one of the reasons why ISO 22000 highlights interactive communication within the organization and across the food chain.

Traceability and Feedback

A pragmatic system should allow relevant product, process, and supply chain information to be identified when an incident occurs.

Traceability is particularly helpful in the event that a business needs to investigate a complaint, isolate affected batches, or support product withdrawal or recall.

Verification and continuous improvement

Must check controls. Evidence that the system continues to operate effectively is provided by internal audits, monitoring results, verification activities, corrective actions, and management review.

Audits are an important part of the management-system approach, because they allow organizations to evaluate their performance and compliance with applicable requirements, says ISO.

ISO 22000 Benefits for Sri Lankan Food Businesses

The practical ISO 22000 benefits will depend on the implementation of the system. ISO says benefits include better food safety, regulatory compliance, customer confidence, operational efficiencies, and wider market access.

For a Sri Lankan food enterprise, these benefits can translate into specific operational outcomes:

• Better hazard control: Risks are identified in a systematic way, rather than waiting for a problem to arise.
• More consistent processes: Defined processes and monitoring criteria reduce variation in critical food-safety processes.
• Improved supplier management: The FSMS contains supplier requirements and incoming-material controls.
• Enhanced traceability: Documentation can help the organization more quickly investigate product and process problems.
• More audit-ready: Internal audits and corrective-action processes can uncover weaknesses before an external certification audit.
• Increased customer confidence: Certification can provide independent evidence that an organization’s FSMS meets ISO 22000 requirements.

Sri Lankan exporters already have internationally recognized food-safety systems in practice. The Sri Lanka Export Development Board’s exporter directory has companies reporting ISO 22000, HACCP, and GMP certifications across products such as spices, processed foods, and other food categories.
Common Problems That Can Affect Certification Audits

You can have procedures in a business and still have problems in an audit if the implementation is poor.

Typical problem areas are:

1. Records done after the activity, not when it happened.
2. No acceptance criteria for monitoring provided
3. Things that cure symptoms but not causes
4. Supplier assessments that are incomplete or out of date
5. Inconsistent HACCP documentation with current production process
6. Employees who cannot describe their food-safety responsibilities
7. Lack of sufficient verification of monitoring equipment
8. Internal audits with findings but no verification of effective closure

The practical test is simple: can the organization show that its stated food-safety controls are working consistently?

That evidence should be from real records, observations, interviews, monitoring results, verification activities, and records of corrective action.

What Has Changed in ISO 22000 and Food Safety Practice?

Organizations implementing ISO 22000 in Sri Lanka should not rely on outdated implementation templates but consider current developments.

Amendment 1:2024: Climate action was amended in ISO 22000:2018. ISO also has ISO/DIS 22000 as the next version under development.

ISO 22002-1:2025, ISO 22002-2:2025, ISO 22002-4:2025, and ISO 22002-5:2025 also deal with prerequisite programs for food manufacturing, catering, food packaging manufacturing, and transport and storage, respectively.

Codex published The General Principles of Food Hygiene, CXC 1-1969, which is still an important international reference. The current listing in Codex shows a 2022 revision.

The practical implication for Sri Lankan businesses is clear: periodically review food-safety systems against the current ISO requirements, relevant Codex guidance, Sri Lankan regulations, and customer specifications.

Conclusion: Building a Food-Safety System That Works

Food safety needs control at all relevant steps from farm to fork. ISO 22000 certification provides Sri Lankan organizations with a systematic framework for integrating those controls via prerequisite programs, hazard analysis, HACCP principles, communication, traceability, verification, and continual improvement.

The ISO 22000 system for food safety has the best value when it is representative of real operations. We can demonstrate that food-safety controls work by having clean production areas, controlled suppliers, reliable monitoring, competent employees, traceable records, and effective corrective actions.

ISO 22000 advantages are therefore not limited to having a certificate. A well-implemented system can help a business more consistently manage hazards, prepare for audits, respond to incidents, and demonstrate food-safety capability to customers and other stakeholders.

For Sri Lankan organizations planning to get ISO 22000, the next step is to compare the current system with the current requirements, identify operational gaps, and build evidence before the certification audit.

Ascent ASSOCIATES can help Sri Lankan organizations with the practical implementation of ISO 22000, documentation, gap assessment, audit preparation, and certification coordination. Review your current food-safety system and map out the next steps to certification by contacting the team.