Templates and records · ISO 22000 · Clause 8.4

ISO 22000 food safety emergency plan template

A power cut with the chillers full, a flood, sabotage. This is not the site emergency plan: it is what you do to make sure no unsafe food leaves the plant.

In one sentence

The food safety emergency plan identifies the situations that could compromise food safety — fire, flood, loss of supply, sabotage, contamination — and defines the response, communication and periodic testing, because clause 8.4 of ISO 22000 requires procedures for responding to them and a review of the documented information after every incident or test.

Content reviewed on 17 October 2026

Where the standard requires it: ISO 22000 · Clause 8.4 Clauses are cited using the numbering of ISO 22000:2018, the current edition. ISO is preparing a third edition that may renumber them; when it is published it will have its own transition period.
Type of information: Mandatory document Documented information maintained and reviewed after incidents and tests (8.4.2)
Who fills it in: Top management and the food safety team With maintenance, production and logistics for the technical scenarios
When: Annual review and after every incident Tests are scheduled at the frequency the company sets
How long it is kept: Current version and test records The plan is maintained; test and incident records are worth keeping for at least the certification cycle

What the standard requires

What ISO 22000 demands and what it leaves to your judgement

Top management ensures that procedures exist for responding to emergencies and incidents that could affect food safety and are relevant to the organisation's role in the food chain.

In an emergency the response must ensure that legal requirements are met, communicate with interested parties and take action to reduce the consequences. Procedures are tested periodically where practicable, and the documented information is reviewed and, if necessary, updated after every incident, emergency or test.

Tests do not have to be full-scale drills: a tabletop exercise on a prolonged power cut is also a test, provided what was learned is recorded.

Read it in context: Prerequisites, traceability and emergencies, in the ISO 22000 Academy

Structure

Fields the template should include

Emergency scenario and its possible effect on food safety
Products, areas or processes affected
Immediate response and person responsible
Handling of affected product
Communication: to whom, by whom and how (customers, authorities, suppliers)
Resources needed: generator, backup cold stores, alternative suppliers
Planned test: type and frequency
Result of the last test and changes made

Example

Example: prolonged power cut scenario

Company, people and figures are fictitious: the example only shows what a properly completed record looks like.

Field	Content
Scenario	Power supply cut of more than four hours
Effect	Loss of refrigeration in finished product chillers and blast chiller stopping mid-cycle
Response	Generator started for the chillers; batches in the blast chiller handled as potentially unsafe
Responsible	Maintenance manager and food safety team leader
Communication	Notice to customers with orders that day and, if affected product has already been dispatched, to the health authority
Test	Monthly generator start-up and annual tabletop exercise
Last test	10 February 2026: the generator does not cover the blast chiller · the plan is extended to move product to a backup cold store

At the audit

Mistakes auditors commonly flag

The fire safety and evacuation plan is presented, with no food safety scenarios.
Generic scenarios that do not match the plant.
It is never tested, or tested without recording what was learned.
The plan is not reviewed after a real incident.

In Kimobox

How this record is kept in Kimobox

1The plan is a controlled document, with version and approval.
2Tests are scheduled as tasks with an owner and a reminder if they fall behind.
3Each real incident opens a record that links the product held and the review of the plan.

Frequently asked questions

What people ask us before getting started

Is it the same as the site emergency plan?

No. The site emergency plan protects people and premises. The ISO 22000 plan deals with product safety in those same situations. They can share scenarios, but one cannot replace the other.

Do we have to run drills?

The standard asks for procedures to be tested periodically where practicable. A tabletop exercise or a generator test is valid, provided the result and the improvements are recorded.

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Sources

Where each figure comes from

References to the official text in force. If a standard is revised, this page is updated and the review date says so.

ISO 22000:2018 — Food safety management systems. Requirements for any organization in the food chain ISO · 2018 ed., with Amd 1:2024