The requirement that applies today
The organization works out which outside and inside conditions affect its purpose and its ability to reach the results it wants from the food safety management system. It records those conditions, keeps them current, and revisits them when the business, the market or the law moves. The clause does not prescribe a list; it requires a considered one.
ISO 22000:2018, 4.1 Understanding the organization and its context; ISO/DIS 22000:2026, 4.1.
What the draft does
Unchanged title; climate change is now explicit: The public contents keep 4.1 at the same number and title. The 2024 amendment already added a climate relevance question to this clause, and the draft incorporates that amendment, so a current context note should already answer it.
Source: public contents and foreword at 4.1, retrieved 2026-10-19.
Why this clause matters
This is where the system shows it is looking outward, not only at its own factory. Auditors read the context note to see whether the site knows its customers, its regulators, its competitors, its suppliers and the risks that sit outside its gate. A context note copied from a template and never updated is worse than a short honest one.
Suggested evidence to discuss with your auditor
For 4.1, these are the artefacts we suggest discussing with your auditor. The standard publishes no evidence list, so this is our reading, not a requirement.
- A dated context register naming the issues, the source and the owner
- A short note on whether climate change is relevant to the site, with the reasoning
- Minutes showing the context was reviewed at the last management review
Where systems usually fall short
- A context list written once for the certification audit and never touched again
- No link between the identified issues and the risks recorded under 6.1
How to prepare
Open the context register and add a climate line with a date and a reason. Then check that every issue that matters has a matching entry in the risk register under 6.1, so the two documents tell the same story.
Dates
Cross-references
Source
Clause 4.1. Current edition: ISO 22000:2018. Draft: ISO/DIS 22000:2026. Retrieved 2026-10-19. The full DIS text for 4.1 is sold by ISO and not held here; the sources page lists what is.
Not legal advice; does not certify; our words, not the standard's, and the planning date is an estimate.