1. 1.
Identifying Interested Parties:
The first step is to identify all relevant interested parties. These can include customers,
suppliers, employees, investors, regulators, and even the local community.
2. 2. Determining Relevant Needs and Expectations:
Once interested parties are identified, the organization needs to understand their
specific needs and expectations. This can involve direct engagement, surveys,
feedback mechanisms, and analysis of market trends.
3. 3. Monitoring and Reviewing:
Stakeholder needs and expectations are not static. Organizations need to establish a
system for regularly monitoring and reviewing these needs to ensure the management
system remains relevant and effective.
4. 4. Compliance Obligations:
Identifying interested parties and their needs can also reveal compliance obligations,
such as legal and regulatory requirements. These obligations need to be incorporated
into the management system.
5. 5. Documenting the Process:
It is important to document the process of identifying, analyzing, and monitoring
interested parties and their needs. This documentation provides evidence of the
organization's efforts to understand and address stakeholder requirements.
6. 6. Examples:
Customers may expect high-quality products and timely delivery, while suppliers might
focus on fair pricing and consistent orders. Regulators may have specific compliance
requirements, and employees may value fair compensation and a safe work
environment.
By effectively understanding and addressing the needs and expectations of its
interested parties, an organization can improve its overall performance,
enhance customer satisfaction, and build stronger relationships with its
stakeholders.
Understanding your business's internal and external stakeholder
interests
The guidance shown on this page is relevant to ISO 9001, ISO 14001
and ISO 45001. Identify the stakeholders of your organization's
management system and capture their relevant requirements.
You should allow time to develop an understanding of your
business's internal and external stakeholder interests that might
impact upon your management system's ability to deliver its intended
results, or those that influence your organization's operational
purpose.
This information should be gathered, reviewed and regularly monitored
through formal channels, such as management review meetings.
We suggest that you undertake analysis of your stakeholders to
determine the relevance of the interested parties and their
requirements as they relate to your business activities, and those
which impact the management system.
In order to determine the relevance of an interested party and their
requirements, your organization needs to answer: ‘does this interested
party, or their requirements, affect our organization’s ability to achieve
the intended outcomes of its management system?’.
If the answer is 'yes', then the interested parties’ requirements should
be captured and considered when planning your management system.
There are many ways to capture this information, your approach could
include:
1. Information summarised as an input to the risk and opportunity
registers;
2. Information summarised as an input to the identification of
environmental aspect and impact registers;
3. Information summarised as an input to the identification of health
and safety hazard and risk registers;
4. Recorded in a simple spreadsheets with version control;
5. Logged and maintained in a database to allow tracking and
reporting;
6. Captured, recorded, and disseminated through key meetings.
Try using brainstorming techniques to identify relevant external and
internal interested parties, e.g. customers, partners, end users,
external providers, owners, shareholders, employees, trade unions,
government agencies, regulatory authorities, local community.
Climate change issues are one of many issues that your organization
needs to consider when analysing your internal and external context
and determining requirements from customers and other relevant
interested parties.
Engage relevant stakeholders, such as customers seeking sustainable
products or with regulatory bodies who have stricter environmental
regulations and permit requirements. Involve the key stakeholders in
the process and understand their climate-related requirements to
address them effectively within your management system.
Similar to the context review discussed previously in Clause 4.1, cross
functional input is vital, as certain functions will identify with particular
stakeholders, for example procurement with suppliers, and sales with
customers. A workshop approach should be encouraged which can be
undertaken independent to, or in conjunction with the context review
workshop.
Once stakeholders and their requirements are identified, the next step
is to consider which stakeholder requirements generate compliance
obligations. Legal requirements should be identified before other
requirements. (ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 only) This process of
adopting requirements will allow you to focus and coordinate on what’s
important.
Make reference to all objective evidence, including examples of
interested parties and any resulting compliance obligations. Look for
evidence that your organization has undergone a process to initially
identify these groups, and then to identify any of their requirements
that are relevant to your management system.
You should also determine whether these groups’ requirements are
reviewed and updated as changes in their requirements occur, or when
changes to your organization’s management system are planned.
Ensure that your organization has properly identified its interested
parties, and subsequently determined if any of their needs and
expectations to be adopted. Ensure that this process is revisited
periodically because the relevant requirements of relevant interested
parties, especially those relating to climate change may change over
time.
Some organizations may choose or even be committed by relevant
stakeholders to adopt climate change requirements. They may be
required to take action to either adapt to relevant climate change
aspects during the planning process or to mitigate relevant climate
change aspects as part of their operational processes, e.g., reducing
Co2 output within the supply chain or during production.
You should ensure that the monitoring and measurement processes
are included in the internal audit programme so your organization can
assure itself that the checking processes and validated and that the
data it is communicating is accurate. It is important to remember
that Clause 4.2 'Understanding the needs and Expectations of
Interested Parties' interacts with the following clauses:
1. Clause 4.3 - 'When determining the scope, the organization shall
consider requirements of relevant interested parties referred to in
4.2'. Do relevant climate change issues impact the QMS scope?;
2. Clause 5.2.2 - 'The quality policies are available to relevant
interested parties, as appropriate';
3. Clause 6.1.1 - 'When planning the management system, the
organization shall consider the requirements and the relevant
climate change issues referred to in 4.2, and determine risks and
opportunities that need to be addressed' What are the risks and
opportunities that need to be addressed?;
4. Clause 8.3.2 - 'In determining the stages and controls for design
and development, the organization shall consider the level of
control expected for the design and development process by
customers and other relevant interested parties'. Address
requirements related to climate change in product and service
design and development;
5. Clause 9.3.2 - 'Management reviews are planned and carried out
considering information on management system performance and
effectiveness, including trends in customer satisfaction and
feedback from relevant interested parties'. If relevant issues
related to climate change have been determined by the
organization, these may have specific monitoring and
measurement needs.
Internal stakeholders could include:
Types of Possible
Internal needs and How to capture key
interested expectations issues:
parties: :
Shared
Employees Employee meetings,
culture,
and consultation and
attitudes and
contractors feedback
job security
Competitive Client/customer
pricing, reviews and
Clients and
climate relationship
customers
change management/custome
requirements r feedback
Beneficial Supplier reviews and
Suppliers supplier-client relationship
relationships management
Unions and Consultation and
Representatio
worker feedback on
n and
representativ employment and
cooperation
es safety issues
External stakeholders could include:
Types of Possible
How to
External needs and
capture key
interested expectatio
issues:
parties: ns:
Critical
Compliance product
Regulators and specification
reporting issues and
conformity
Consultation
Profitability and
Shareholder and engagement
s strategies exercises to
for growth identify
concerns
Consultation
and
Neighbours Social engagement
and responsibilit exercises to
communitie y and identify
s engagement climate
change
concerns
Local Engagement
Authorities Consultation with planning
and and and
Governmen information development
t issues
The relevant requirements of interested parties must be available as
inputs into the management system planning process, as potential
risks and opportunities (Clause 6.1). There is no requirement to retain
documented information, but the following types of documentation
would help to evidence this:
1. Minutes of meetings (from meetings from each group of interested
party);
2. Requirement spreadsheets and databases (CRM & ERM type
applications);
3. External communications and documentation;
4. Quality manual;
5. Flow down and capture of requirements relevant to the
management system defined in contracts, orders, statements of
work, terms of business etc;
6. Records of meetings where interested parties and their
requirements, including those relating to climate change are
routinely discussed and monitored.
7. Stakeholder mapping to determine importance;
8. Records of surveys, networking, face-to-face meetings, association
membership, attending conferences, lobbying, participation in
benchmarking.
When analyzing the requirements of interested parties, the needs and
demands in connection with climate change must also be considered.
This should be discussed during management review meetings and
recorded in the meeting minutes.
Look for evidence that your organization has undergone a process to
initially identify these groups, and then to identify any of their
requirements that are relevant to your organization’s management
system.
You should also determine whether these groups’ requirements are
reviewed and updated as changes in their requirements occur, or when
changes to your organization’s management system are planned.
If your organization has determined there are relevant issues or
customer and other interested parties' requirements related to climate
change, the next step is to address them in the management system.
Ensure your organization considers climate change-related
requirements when determining or reviewing the customer
requirements related to products and services. These climate change-
related requirements may have specific implications for monitoring
and measuring customer satisfaction.
Here is a list of interested parties that are typically relevant to a Food Safety Management
System (FSMS), as per ISO 22000:2018:
✅ Interested Parties Relevant to the FSMS
Interested Party Role/Interest in FSMS
Customers Expect safe, high-quality food that meets specifications and
Interested Party Role/Interest in FSMS
expectations.
Consumers (End-users) Concerned with health, safety, and labeling of food products.
Regulatory Authorities Enforce statutory and regulatory requirements (e.g., FDA, EFSA, FSSAI).
Suppliers & Contractors Must provide safe and compliant raw materials, ingredients, or services.
Need training, safe work environments, and involvement in food safety
Employees
culture.
Accountable for the effectiveness of the FSMS and ensuring continuous
Top Management
improvement.
Certification Bodies Assess compliance with ISO 22000 or other food safety standards.
Interested in legal compliance, brand protection, and business
Shareholders/Owners
continuity.
Auditors (Internal/External) Review FSMS implementation and compliance.
Logistics/Distributors Involved in transportation and storage that could affect food safety.
Cleaning & Sanitation
Their services impact hygiene and food safety.
Providers
Community/Local Authorities Concerned with environmental, health, and safety impacts.
Media & NGOs May raise food safety or ethical concerns that affect public trust.
Certainly! Below is a structured table outlining examples of relevant requirements of each
interested party for a Food Safety Management System (FSMS), based on ISO 22000:2018
principles:
✅ Relevant Requirements of Interested Parties in FSMS
Interested Party Relevant Requirements
Customers - Safe and compliant products
- Timely delivery
- Accurate labeling and traceability
Interested Party Relevant Requirements
- Quality assurance
- Food safety and hygiene
Consumers (End-users) - Clear ingredient/allergen information
- Product shelf-life and quality
- Compliance with food laws (e.g., FDA, EFSA, FSSAI)
Regulatory Authorities - Licensing, inspections, documentation
- Traceability and recall procedures
- Compliance with raw material specs
Suppliers & Contractors - Food safety certifications (e.g., HACCP, ISO 22000)
- Clean transport and storage
- Food safety training
Employees - Awareness of hygiene and critical control points
- Involvement in FSMS implementation
- FSMS performance and continual improvement
Top Management - Risk-based thinking
- Legal and reputational compliance
- Conformance with ISO 22000 standards
Certification Bodies - Documented procedures and records
- Internal audit results
- Risk management and business continuity
Shareholders/Owners - Legal compliance
- Reputation and brand protection
- Accurate and accessible documentation
Auditors (Internal/External) - Implementation evidence of FSMS
- Objective records of food safety controls
- Temperature control
Logistics/Distributors - Product integrity during transportation
- Clean and safe handling practices
- Effective cleaning protocols
Cleaning & Sanitation Providers - Use of approved chemicals
- Scheduled cleaning logs
- Environmental compliance (e.g., waste disposal)
Community/Local Authorities - Noise, pollution, or pest control
- Food safety incidents management
Media & NGOs - Transparency and ethical practices
Interested Party Relevant Requirements
- Corporate social responsibility
- Crisis communication plans