Guide · Food safety schemes

FSSC 22000 Version 7 and the ISO 22000 revision: what food safety certification bodies have to plan

Food safety certification bodies face two changes in a row: the FSSC 22000 Version 7 upgrade, which has fixed dates now, and a new edition of ISO 22000, which is still in draft. Both land on the same auditors.

Last reviewed 27 September 2026. We update this page when ISO publishes ISO 22000 or FSSC changes the upgrade rules.

FSSC 22000 Version 7: the dates

May 2026

Version 7 published

FSSC 22000 Version 7 is released, with ISO 22002-100:2025 as the prerequisite programme reference.

1 October 2026

New licences on V7 only

Certification bodies applying for a new FSSC licence can only apply for Version 7 from this date.

30 April 2027

Last Version 6 audits

Version 6 audits may be carried out up to this date.

1 May 2027 to 30 April 2028

Upgrade audits

Every certified organisation is audited against Version 7 within this year.

After 30 June 2028

V6 certificates withdrawn

Any remaining Version 6 certificates are withdrawn.

What Version 7 asks of the certification body

Every auditor retrains before a V7 audit. All Version 6 auditors must complete training and pass exams on Version 7, ISO 22002-100:2025 and the relevant sector-specific requirements. The records must be in the FSSC Auditor Register before the auditor conducts a Version 7 audit.
Certificate expiry dates carry over. After an upgrade audit, the new certificate keeps the expiry date of the Version 6 certificate. The upgrade does not restart the three-year cycle, so your certificate register must not either.
One year to reach every client. The upgrade audit window is twelve months, and every certified client needs its upgrade audit inside it. The load follows your audit calendar, so a cluster of audits in one quarter becomes a cluster of upgrades.

The planning trap

If your auditors' V7 training is not in the Auditor Register by May 2027, every audit they were scheduled to deliver in the upgrade year needs a different auditor or a new date. Schedule training by audit date, not by auditor seniority.

ISO 22000: a new edition in draft

The revision of ISO 22000:2018 is at Draft International Standard stage. The draft ballot ran from 6 May to 30 July 2026. ISO has not announced a publication date, and the transition rules will follow publication.

Because FSSC 22000 is built on ISO 22000, expect a further scheme update after the new edition is published. Keeping auditor competence records by standard and edition, rather than by scheme name alone, is what lets you show who is qualified for which version. The competence evidence an assessor asks for

In India: FSSAI-recognised audit agencies

Under the Food Safety and Standards (Food Safety Auditing) Regulations, 2018, a food safety auditing agency recognised by FSSAI needs accreditation from NABCB to ISO/IEC 17020, ISO/IEC 17021 or ISO/TS 22003. Recognition runs for three years.

For an agency, that means two expiry dates to track, FSSAI recognition and NABCB accreditation, each with its own renewal. Both need to be in the diary, with the evidence for renewal kept as you go. Certyze for NABCB-accredited certification bodies

What to do now

1
List every client with its audit due date from May 2027 to April 2028. That is your upgrade programme.
2
Book V7 auditor training by those dates. And confirm each record reaches the FSSC Auditor Register.
3
Check your certificate template and register. The upgraded certificate carries forward the old expiry date.
4
Watch for the ISO 22000 publication. Plan for a second round of competence updates.

Every transition certification bodies are running, in date order

Sources

FSSC, Version 7 Upgrade Process, and Version 7 is official, May 2026.
ISO, ISO/DIS 22000.
FSSAI, Procedure for recognition of food safety auditing agencies, October 2018, under the Food Safety and Standards (Food Safety Auditing) Regulations, 2018.

Written by the Certyze team for certification bodies. FSSC, ISO and FSSAI documents govern. Certyze is not affiliated with or endorsed by FSSC, ISO, FSSAI or NABCB.

Certyze gates audit team assignment on approved competence by scheme and technical area, and keeps certificate dates in the register, so an upgrade year does not depend on a spreadsheet.

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