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Issue Number: Council II 030

Title

Transition of the CFP Standard to the ISO/IEC 17024 Standard

Issue you would like the Conference to consider

The Conference should consider adopting the International Standard "ISO/IEC 17024: Conformity Assessment - General Requirements for Bodies Operating Certification of Persons" developed by the International Organization for Accreditation in lieu of the "Conference for Food Protection Standards for the Accreditation of Food Protection Manager Certification Programs" over a multi-year transition period. The Conference should task the Food Manager Certification Committee with developing a plan to transition from the Conference standard to the ISO standard.

The Conference would still maintain control over the accreditation process associated with the Conference's accreditation. The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) would evaluate applicant certification bodies against ISO/IEC 17024 and determine if the requirements have been met and would accredited the organization against the ISO standard. The Conference would still have to accept ANSI's recommendations before an organization would be deemed to be accredited by the Conference. ANSI cannot accredit a certification body for the Conference. Only the Conference can award conference accreditation unless the Conference designates ANSI to do this for them.

Attached to this issue are three files that should be reviewed. The first is the application for accreditation. This file is attached because it contains the language of the ISO/IEC 17024 standard. Because the standard is a copyrighted standard, it is not allowed to be placed in this issue for presentation to the entire conference. However the text of the standard does appear in the application so the conference may review the clauses of the standard by reviewing the application. The second file that is attached is a background paper that describes the issue in further detail. Finally the third file is a letter from the American National Standards Institute attesting to the comparability of the two standards.

Public Health Significance

The safety of food in the United States is dependent upon Food Managers who understand and implement basic food safety concepts. The Conference has established a standard and an accreditation process against that standard to ensure that Food Manager Certification Programs attesting to the knowledge and skills of Food Managers are valid, reliable and legally defensible. Over time, this standard must be updated and maintained by experts familiar in standards language and standards development. A volunteer pool of food experts may not have the necessary knowledge to adequately maintain the standard.

The United States government (including the Department of Defense, Food and Drug Administration, and Department of Energy) have identified an international standard (ISO/IEC 17024) and accreditation against this standard by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). They have selected ISO/IEC 17024 standard as the standard of choice for providing evidence that a personnel certification program is valid, reliable and legally defensible. ISO/IEC 17024 is maintained by an international organization, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) on a regular basis and has world-wide acceptance. By using this standard in lieu of the Conference standard, the public can be assured that Food Manager Certification Programs are recognized against the very best standard by the very best accrediting body.

Recommended Solution: The Conference recommends...

adoption of "ISO/IEC 17024 Conformity Assessment: General requirements for bodies operating certification of persons" to replace the "Conference for Food Protection Standard for the Accreditation of Food Protection Manager Certification Program" over a multi-year transition period. This adoption simply means a swapping of one standard (the Conference Standard) for another equivalent standard (the ISO Standard).

The Conference also recommends that the Food Protection Manager Certification Committee be tasked with:

  • developing a multi-year process to gradually transition to the new ISO standard. The transition should occur in stages allowing sufficient time for all accredited certification bodies to meet the new standard and in guidance with the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).
  • revising the Committee governing documents to reflect the transition of the Conference standard to the ISO standard, to reflect any additional requirements above the ISO standards that the conference would want to require for Conference Accreditation, and to reflect the conference maintaining control over the Conference accreditation process.

Attachments

Word File