World Food Safety Guidelines for Airline Catering 2022 launched at IFSA EXPO
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Last week, APEX/IFSA EXPO saw the release of the World Food Safety Guidelines (WFSG) for Airline Catering 2022.
These guidelines have evolved from the collaboration between the airline catering industry and federal regulatory agencies with major roles in setting the safe operating standards for catering, customer and crew consumption of food, drink and water provided on aircraft.
The 2022 World Food Safety guidelines now provide updated food safety guidelines for airlines worldwide.
Airline caterers have been provided with an implementation guide, to update and enhance their food safety program by incorporating elements of FSSC, which is an ISO based globally recognized standard for best practice.
However, IFSA is looking to go even further and is advocating for a universally recognised airline catering standard worldwide. According to IFSA Executive Director Lauren Costello:
“While the 2022 WFSG provides updated food safety guidelines for the airline catering industry, IFSA strongly believes there must be a universal standard inclusive of the airline catering industry within a globally recognized food safety scheme.
“IFSA’s membership is dedicated to the advancement of the multi-billion-dollar inflight services industry and for assuring food safety on all routes. To this end, IFSA proposes a collaboration between IFSA, FSSC 22000, and ISO, to develop an addendum to ISO 22000 for auditing and certification of Food Safety Management Systems (FSMS) specific to airline catering.”
The WFSG global collaborations began with FDA’s use of the 1976 Food Service Sanitation Manual used to audit and score the operations of airline caterers, passenger trains and vessels under U.S. flag.
The CDC established the same program in collaboration with the International Cruise Lines under foreign flags operating from U.S. ports under the same principles and regulations.
This common basis for public health protection and auditing functions demonstrated the domestic and international application of the same public health principles regarding the operations of all passenger carriers worldwide.
These efforts were also the impetus for the publication of the WHO Guide to Hygiene and Sanitation in Aviation. This publication covers catering, waste, water, sanitation, communicable disease control in aviation internationally.