ISO 22000 is a management-system standard for food safety, but the operational engine inside it is HACCP: Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points. The seven HACCP principles, codified by the Codex Alimentarius Commission in CXC 1-1969, provide the science-based logic for identifying hazards and deciding how to control them. ISO 22000:2018 incorporates those principles within Clause 8 (operational planning and control) and adds the Annex SL management-system architecture around them.
Understanding how the seven principles map to ISO 22000's three-tier control system (Prerequisite Programme, Operational Prerequisite Programme, and Critical Control Point) is essential for candidates preparing for an ISTO Test of Understanding, and for practitioners who need to explain ISO 22000 to stakeholders familiar with standalone HACCP.
The 7 Codex Alimentarius HACCP principles
The Codex General Principles of Food Hygiene (CXC 1-1969) establish seven HACCP principles that define the method. ISO 22000 incorporates all seven within its Clause 8 operational sequence. The table below sets out each principle and its role.
| Principle | Name | What it requires |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hazard analysis | Identify all biological, chemical, and physical hazards that could occur at each step of the process; evaluate each for likelihood and severity to determine which are significant |
| 2 | Determine CCPs | Identify the Critical Control Points — the steps in the process where a control measure is essential to prevent, eliminate, or reduce a significant hazard to an acceptable level |
| 3 | Establish critical limits | Set the measurable criterion (temperature, time, pH, water activity, etc.) that separates acceptable from unacceptable at each CCP |
| 4 | Monitoring system | Define how each CCP will be monitored — what is measured, how often, by whom — to confirm the process is under control in real time |
| 5 | Corrective action | Specify what happens when monitoring shows that a CCP is out of control — what action is taken, who decides, and how affected product is handled |
| 6 | Verification | Confirm that the HACCP system is working effectively — through additional testing, reviews, audits, and validation of control measures |
| 7 | Documentation and record-keeping | Maintain written documentation of the HACCP plan and records demonstrating that the system is operating as designed |
Each principle builds on the previous one. A rigorous hazard analysis (Principle 1) is the foundation: if hazards are missed or their significance misjudged, the rest of the system will protect against the wrong things. The verification and documentation principles (6 and 7) close the loop. They are how an organization, a customer, or a regulatory authority can confirm that the system is working, not just that it was designed to work.
PRP vs OPRP vs CCP — the three-tier control system
ISO 22000:2018 introduces a three-tier control architecture that sits between hazard analysis and verification. Not every hazard requires a Critical Control Point. ISO 22000 gives organizations a structured way to decide which control level is appropriate:
Prerequisite Programmes (PRPs) are the baseline conditions and activities necessary to maintain a hygienic environment throughout the food chain. They address cross-cutting concerns: cleaning and disinfection, pest control, personal hygiene, supplier qualification, labelling, and so on. PRPs do not control specific identified hazards; they maintain the hygienic foundation that makes hazard analysis meaningful. Without a functioning PRP foundation, the HACCP analysis sits on unreliable ground.
Operational Prerequisite Programmes (OPRPs) control a hazard that is significant (identified as such in the hazard analysis) but where the control measure at that step does not have a measurable critical limit in the way a CCP does, or where the monitoring method is different. For example, a controlled cooking step with a documented time-temperature target might be managed as an OPRP if the critical limit cannot be continuously monitored at the process step in the same way as a traditional CCP.
Critical Control Points (CCPs) are process steps where a control measure is essential to prevent, eliminate, or reduce a significant hazard to an acceptable level, and where a critical limit can be established and monitored in real time. When a CCP is out of control (when the measured value crosses the critical limit), corrective action is required immediately, and affected product must be evaluated and possibly withheld.
The choice between OPRP and CCP for a given control measure is one of the most technically demanding decisions in HACCP plan development. ISO 22000 provides guidance in its annexes, and the Codex decision tree remains a widely used tool for determining CCPs (Principle 2).
Clause 8 — where HACCP lives in ISO 22000
ISO 22000:2018 places the hazard analysis and control sequence in Clause 8 — operational planning and control. This clause is by far the most technically detailed section of the standard. It covers:
- Operational planning and control (8.1)
- Prerequisite programmes (8.2)
- Traceability system (8.3)
- Emergency preparedness and response (8.4)
- Hazard control, including the full HACCP sequence (8.5–8.9): hazard analysis, selecting and categorizing control measures, establishing the HACCP/OPRP plan, monitoring, verification of control measures, and correction and corrective action
The hazard control sequence in Clause 8.5 maps directly to the seven Codex principles, in order. Annex A of ISO 22000:2018 makes this explicit with a cross-reference table listing each clause alongside its corresponding Codex HACCP step, making the connection between the international standard and the Codex method formally documented within the standard itself.
Annex A cross-references to Codex
ISO 22000:2018 Annex A is an informative annex that maps the standard's structure to the Codex Alimentarius HACCP steps and the General Principles of Food Hygiene (CXC 1-1969). It shows:
- Which ISO 22000 clauses correspond to each Codex HACCP step
- Which clauses correspond to which Codex prerequisite programme (GHP) elements
- That the full seven-principle HACCP sequence is covered within Clause 8
The annex is informative (it adds no requirements), but it is substantively useful for organizations migrating from a standalone HACCP plan to a full ISO 22000 FSMS, and for auditors and candidates who need to demonstrate fluency in both frameworks.
Beyond HACCP — the management-system layer
A standalone HACCP plan is operationally sound but organizationally incomplete. It tells you which CCPs to monitor and what to do when they breach a critical limit. It does not tell you how to allocate resources to food safety over time, how to ensure top management is genuinely engaged, how to plan for and learn from incidents, or how to set and track food-safety objectives at the strategic level.
ISO 22000 answers those questions by embedding the HACCP operational logic inside an Annex SL management-system framework, the same architecture used by ISO 9001, ISO 14001, and ISO 45001. Clauses 4 through 7 and Clauses 9 and 10 cover context, leadership, planning, support, performance evaluation, and improvement in exactly the same structure as those standards. This allows food businesses to integrate their FSMS with other management systems and to subject the HACCP process to the same improvement discipline applied to the business as a whole.
The 2024 amendment extends that management-system layer to explicitly address climate change in the context review (Clauses 4.1 and 4.2), a recognition that climate-related factors, from changing weather patterns to supply-chain disruption, are increasingly relevant to food-safety risk. For a full account of what Amd 1:2024 changes, see the companion article What's new in ISO 22000:2018/Amd 1:2024.