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FSSC 22000 version 7: the dates, the changes and your upgrade
Version 7 was published in May 2026. Every certified site moves across in a fixed window, and the prerequisite standards underneath the scheme have all been replaced. Here is what changed and when yours is due.
Last day for a version 6 audit
30 Apr 2027
until certification bodies must stop auditing against version 6. Transition window: May 2026 to 30 April 2028.In short
- FSSC 22000 version 7 was published in May 2026 by the scheme owner, Foundation FSSC.
- Audits against version 6 are only allowed up to 30 April 2027. Upgrade audits against version 7 run from 1 May 2027 to 30 April 2028.
- Remaining version 6 certificates are set to withdrawn after 30 June 2028 and disappear from the public register.
- The biggest technical change is underneath the scheme: the prerequisite programme standards have moved to the ISO 22002 2025 series, including a new umbrella part.
- Your upgrade is normally done at a regular surveillance or recertification audit, not as an extra visit, so the cost is audit time rather than a whole new audit.
The timeline
Four dates that are not negotiable
These come from the scheme owner’s own transition documents. Your certification body applies them, it does not set them, so there is no point asking for an extension.
- May 2026
- Version 7 publishedThe scheme document, the new prerequisite series and the transition rules all land together.
- 30 April 2027
- Version 6 audits endNo audit may be delivered against version 6 after this date.
- 1 May 2027
- Upgrade audits beginThe upgrade window runs for twelve months, to 30 April 2028.
- 30 June 2028
- Old certificates withdrawnAny version 6 certificate still open is set to withdrawn and leaves the public register.
The practical deadline is personal to your site, because you transition at whichever audit falls inside the window. A site audited every March will move in March 2028. A site audited in June will move in June 2027. Work back from your own audit month, not from the scheme dates.
Work out your date
Which version will your next audit use
Pick the month of your next scheduled audit. Nothing is stored or sent anywhere.
Upgrade planner
Your next audit, and what it will be against
Version 7
That audit falls inside the upgrade window, so it will be your transition audit.
If your next audit is the last one before the window closes, treat that date as your real deadline and plan backwards from it. Certification bodies fill their calendars through 2027, so booking early matters more than usual this cycle.
The main change
The prerequisite standards have all been replaced
FSSC 22000 has always been built on three things: ISO 22000 for the management system, a sector prerequisite programme standard for your food chain category, and the scheme’s own additional requirements. Version 7 leaves the first alone and replaces the second.
| Your category | Version 6 used | Version 7 uses |
|---|---|---|
| Food manufacturing | ISO/TS 22002-1 | ISO 22002-1:2025 |
| Catering | ISO/TS 22002-2 | ISO 22002-2:2025 |
| Packaging manufacturing | ISO/TS 22002-4 | ISO 22002-4:2025 |
| Transport and storage | ISO/TS 22002-5 | ISO 22002-5:2025 |
| Animal feed | ISO 22002-6 | ISO 22002-6:2025 |
| Retail and wholesale | PAS 221 | ISO 22002-7:2025 |
| All categories | No equivalent | ISO 22002-100:2025, the new umbrella part |
Buy the part that matches your category before your gap review. Reading the new text is the work, and it is where most of the upgrade effort sits.
This matters more than a version number suggests. Some of these standards had not been revised since 2009, so the 2025 editions are not a light edit. They are where your cleaning, maintenance, pest control, layout and personal hygiene requirements now live, and they are written to be audited.
Beyond the prerequisites
What else version 7 changes
The category and subcategory structure has been reworked so that scope, applicable prerequisites and audit planning match what a site actually does. Check that your certificate scope still maps cleanly, because a recategorised site can pick up requirements it did not have before.
The scheme has been re-aligned with the Global Food Safety Initiative benchmarking requirements published in 2024, which is what keeps an FSSC certificate acceptable to retailers that insist on a recognised scheme.
Version 7 brings in expectations around the organisation’s contribution to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, which in practice means objectives and measurement rather than statements of intent. Food loss and waste already had its own requirement, and this extends the thinking.
Culture stays in the additional requirements, and the expectation has moved from having a plan to showing senior management involvement, communication and measurement of whether any of it worked.
The scheme owner also describes editorial improvements as part of continuous improvement of the scheme. Useful, but do not let it distract you: the prerequisite series and your category mapping are where the real work is.
Certification bodies have published their own detailed change guides with clause level comparisons, and several go further than the scheme owner’s summary. Read those for planning, then confirm anything that affects your system against the scheme document itself before you rewrite a procedure.
Reference
The additional requirements, in full
These are the areas the scheme adds on top of ISO 22000 and the prerequisite standard. Not every one applies to every category, but this is the list your auditor works from.
If your existing system was built for version 6, most of these headings will be familiar. The work is in the detail underneath them, and in whether your evidence still satisfies the new wording.
Locally
What this means for exporters in Pakistan
Retail and multinational customers track scheme versions. Expect a question about your version 7 plan well before your audit is due, often at the next supplier review.
Auditor availability tightens during every transition. A site that waits until the last quarter of the window is competing with everyone else who waited.
The upgrade runs at a normal surveillance or recertification visit. The extra cost is additional audit time, plus whatever the new prerequisite text forces you to fix.
If you are not certified yet and a buyer has just asked for a scheme, start on version 7 directly rather than certifying to version 6 and upgrading months later. Our post on HACCP, ISO 22000 and FSSC 22000 covers which one your buyer is likely to require, and the cost guide explains how audit days are calculated so you can read the quote.
Practical
An eight step upgrade plan
- Fix your own deadlineFind the month of your last audit inside the window. That is your date, and it is usually earlier than people assume.
- Buy the right prerequisite standardThe 2025 part for your category, plus the new umbrella part. You cannot gap review against a document you have not read.
- Check your category mappingConfirm your food chain category and subcategory still describe what you do under the new structure, and ask your certification body to confirm it in writing.
- Run a gap review against the new textClause by clause, marking each as compliant, partly compliant or missing, with an owner for every gap.
- Start with the floor, not the folderThe prerequisite changes touch cleaning, maintenance, equipment and hygiene. Those fixes take longer than document edits, so they go first.
- Rework the affected proceduresUpdate only what the gap review flagged. Rewriting a whole manual because the version number changed wastes weeks.
- Train the team and evidence the cultureAwareness sessions, management involvement and a way of measuring whether either changed anything.
- Book the upgrade audit earlyConfirm with your certification body which visit becomes the upgrade, and ask what extra time they have allocated.
Two or three months of honest work is a realistic picture for a site with a working version 6 system. A site that has been coasting will find the prerequisite standards unforgiving, which is the whole point of revising them.
Questions
Common questions
When was FSSC 22000 version 7 published?
In May 2026, by the scheme owner, Foundation FSSC. It brings in the ISO 22002 2025 prerequisite series, alignment with the 2024 GFSI benchmarking requirements, a more defined food chain category structure and expectations around contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals.
When is the deadline to upgrade to version 7?
Audits against version 6 are only allowed up to 30 April 2027. Upgrade audits against version 7 run from 1 May 2027 to 30 April 2028, and remaining version 6 certificates are set to withdrawn after 30 June 2028.
Is the upgrade a separate audit?
Normally no. The upgrade is carried out at a regular surveillance or recertification audit that falls inside the window, with extra audit time allocated for the new requirements.
What is the biggest change in version 7?
The prerequisite programme standards. Version 7 uses the ISO 22002 2025 series in place of the older ISO/TS parts and PAS 221, and adds a new umbrella part covering the food, feed and packaging supply chain.
Do we need to buy new standards?
You need the 2025 prerequisite part for your food chain category, and the scheme document itself is published by the scheme owner. Gap reviewing from a summary article, including this one, is not a substitute for the text.
We are certifying for the first time. Which version?
Plan for version 7. Certifying against version 6 now means upgrading again inside a year, which costs more and achieves nothing.
Does version 7 affect our ISO 22000 certificate?
No. ISO 22000:2018 is unchanged and remains the management system requirement inside FSSC 22000. If you hold ISO 22000 alone, nothing here applies to your certificate.
What happens if we miss the window?
Your certificate is withdrawn from the public register, which is what buyers check. Recovering from that is slower and more expensive than upgrading on time.
Sources
- Foundation FSSC, FSSC 22000 scheme version 7.0 and the version 7 upgrade process, fssc.com, May 2026
- Foundation FSSC, update about FSSC 22000 version 7, on the ISO 22002 series, GFSI benchmarking requirements 2024 and the Sustainable Development Goals
- ISO, ISO 22002-1:2025 and ISO 22002-100:2025, prerequisite programmes on food safety
- ISO 22000:2018, food safety management systems, ISO/TC 34/SC 17
- Certification body and consultancy transition guides published during 2026, used for planning detail only
Next step
Find out what your upgrade actually involves
Send us your current certificate, your food chain category and the month of your next audit. We will tell you which version that audit falls under, where the new prerequisite text is likely to bite, and what a realistic plan looks like from where you are. The first conversation costs nothing.
Request a gap reviewSee our food safety services
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