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Introduction

The Food Industry Standards Committee (FISC) is the national oversight committee for participation in National (Irish Standard or I.S.) European (European Norm or EN) and International standardisation (International standard organisation or ISO). The members of FISC include representatives from all parties that maybe interested or affected by National, European or International standardisation projects.  FISC meets twice per year to review the activities of the specialist working groups that operate under the umbrella of the main committee.

The mission of FISC is to ensure, in so far as is practical that the interested and affected parties are notified in a timely manner of standardisation activities  in the areas of feed and food  and provide an opportunity to have input into the development of standards.


ISO and CEN Level

At ISO level, FISC monitors the activities of one committee called ISO TC 34 "Food Products", this committee has 16 Sub committees (SCs) some of which e.g. SC 9 "Microbiology" has 22 working groups (WGs). In addition ISO TC 34 has a number of topic specific Working Groups e.g .WG 17 Water Activity.

A number of CEN Technical Committee are monitored by national experts of FISC

  • CEN TC 275 "Food analysis -Horizontal methods"
  • CEN TC 302 "Milk and Milk products – Methods of sampling"
  • CEN TC 327 " Animal feeding stuffs – Methods of sampling and analysis"
  • CEN TC 338 " Cereal and cereal products"

At National Level NSAI have published a number of food related standards, which you can view here. 

 
I.S. 340:2007 and Amd 1:2015 "Hygiene in the catering sector"
This standard provides guidance to compliance for the Food Hygiene and the Food Information to Consumers regulations for the operators of food catering establishments.
This standard (excluding the Amd1) is available in the Chinese, Irish and Polish languages.

I.S. 341:2007 and Amd 1:2015 "Hygiene for food retailing and wholesaling"
This standard provides guidance to compliance for the Food Hygiene and the Food Information to Consumers regulations for the operators of food retail and wholesaling businesses.

I.S. 432:2010 "Packaged ground water"
This standard is used by food business operators who wish to have their packaged water recognised as natural mineral water under EU legislation. This standard provides very useful information for any food business operator who is considering setting up a packaged water plant in Ireland.

All three Irish Standards have been notified to the EU Commission and are listed as official guides. 

At national level a standard "Guidance to compliance with the requirements of EU Regulation 852/2004 and 853/200 for small food processors of food of animal origin" is being drafted by a specialist working group under FISC.
 
Read the latest and past Food Standards Annual Reports

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