What are International Featured Standards (IFS)?
The International Featured Standard (IFS) is a common food safety standard with a uniform evaluation system to qualify and select suppliers. It helps retailers to ensure the food safety of their products. In addition, it monitors the quality level of producers of retailers’ branded food products.
Food Safety is used as a scientific discipline, describing the handling, preparation, and storage of food in ways that prevent foodborne illness. In considering industry-to-market practices, food safety considerations include the origins of food, including the rules relating to food labeling, food hygiene, food additives, and pesticide residues, as well as policies on biotechnology and food and guidelines for the management of governmental import and export inspection and certification system for foods.
- IFS is a crucial standard in Europe – all major retailers in Germany, France, Italy, and other EU Countries require suppliers to be certified to IFS, and the bar continues to grow internationally
- Offices are located in key regions worldwide, including Europe, the Americas, and Asia.
- The focus is on creating a standardized, uniform measure against which retailers and brand owners can access their suppliers and enhance transparency in the supply chain.
What are the Principles of Food Hygiene?
There are five fundamental principles of Food Hygiene, according to World Health Organization (WHO).
- Prevent contaminating food with pathogens spreading from people, pets, and pests.
- Separate raw and cooked foods to prevent contaminating the cooked foods.
- Cooked food for the appropriate length of time and at the proper temperature to kill pathogens.
- Store food at the proper temperature.
- Use Safe water and safe raw materials.
What is IFS Certification?
IFS Standards currently comprise eight standards, which have been developed for and by the stakeholders involved in all parts of the supply chain. All standards are process standards that help users implement legal provisions regarding food and product safety and provide uniform guidelines on food safety and quality issues.
The certification shows that the certified company has established processes suitable for ensuring food and product safety and has considered and implemented customer specifications. Certification is open to food manufacturers, brokers, logistics providers, household and hygiene products manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers.
What are the Benefits of Implementing IFS?
The following are the benefits of Implementing IFS:
- Industry Driven
- Differentiated Scoring
- Risk-based Non-Prescriptive
- Corrective Actions to Improve
- IFS Audit Manager App
- IFS Recognized Consultants
- IFS Expert Guidelines
- Software for Uniform Reporting
- Unique Database Increases visibility
- IFS Integrity Program
- Experienced Auditors in Each scope
- Proven Business Driving Benefits
What is IFS Food?
IFS Food is a GFSI-recognized standard for auditing food safety and the quality of processes and products of food manufacturers. It concerns food processing companies or companies that pack loose food products. It supports production and marketing efforts for brand safety and quality.
Food is applied to:
- Processing and working
- Handling of loose products
- It undertook activities during the primary packaging.
What is IFS Global Markets Food?
Food is a standardized food safety assessment program for retailers and industry-branded food products. The program is meant to support “small and less developed businesses” in developing their food safety management systems and making the first step towards implementing the Food Standard.
What is Wholesale / Cash & Carry?
The Standard was developed to optimize the audit procedures of wholesalers and cash & carry markets. These two distinct businesses connect producers, converters, and commercial clients. Besides a wide range of traded products, they can also carry out specific treatment and processing activities and develop their brands.
Therefore, depending on the company’s core business, a tailor-made checklist applies to Wholesale or Cash & Carry.
What is IFS Logistics 2.2?
IFS Logistics is standard for auditing all logistics activities for food and non-food products, such as transport, storage, distribution, loading, unloading, etc. It applies to all activities, including delivery by road, rail, or ship, of frozen/refrigerated products or such products without cooling.
The objectives of IFS Logistics 2.2 are:
- To check the requirements for understanding.
- To adapt the Standard to meet current legislation
- To include all IFS Doctrines
- To improve understanding of audit protocol
- To specify the applicability for the logistical handling of unpacked food products (e.g., bread n boxes, meat carcasses) and non-food products.
- To include specific requirements for freezing and thawing as a service.
- To update the Standard with a new version of GFSI.
- Guidance Document and benchmark procedure for storage and distribution standards.
What is IFS Global Markets Logistics?
The Global Markets Logistics program aims to facilitate market access locally, create mutual acceptance along the supply chain, and provide a framework for mentoring, developing, and assessing small and less developed logistics service providers. Due to their size, these companies might encounter difficulties implementing efficient product safety and quality processes.
It offers a flexible application of the stepwise approach in time, starting level, and final level. Moreover, Global Markets- Logistics provides an excellent opportunity to take the first steps toward a full Logistics certification.
What is IFS Broker Version 2?
The Brokers must be applied to all companies primarily involved in “trading activities “and who choose their suppliers, purchase or trade in the goods from them themselves, and then have deliveries made directly to their customers, charging this customer for such goods now, without themselves ever having come into contact with the product.
These are the following reasons for the revision of IFS Broker Version 2
- To exclude duplications
- To check the requirements for understanding
- To adapt the standard to meet current legislation
- To align audit protocol with the other IFS standards
- To include a food defense check0list in the general audit checklist.
- To include all IFS doctrines
- To improve understanding of the Audit protocol
- To specify the applicability to the trading of packaging materials
- To update the standard by the new version of the GFSI Guidance Document.
What is IFS HPC?
HPC is the Standard to ensure product safety, reduce costs, and ensure transparency concerning the entire production chain of household and personal care products. Version 2 will come into force in October 2016. There will be a transition period from October 2016 until the 1st of January 2017, in which companies could choose between version 1 and version 2. From the 1st of January 2017, only IFS HPC audits based on version 2 will be accepted.
What is IFS PACsecure?
IFS PACsecure is a standard for auditing primary and secondary packaging material manufacturers and converters.
The standard clauses of IFS PACsecure are:
- Senior Management Responsibility
- Quality and Food Safety Management System
- Resource Management
- Planning and Production Process
- Measurements, Analysis, Improvements
- Food defense and external inspections.
IFS Food Store
The RAS Standard emerges from the desire of leading retailers in the French food industry, who are members of the FCD, to measure how well their stores control food safety accurately.
What is the Goal of IFS?
IFS Standards are the common internationally accepted audit standards to ensure that IFS Certified companies can deliver products or services which are in line with the defined specifications of their customer to improve continuously (non) food product safety and quality for the consumers.
In Addition, to IFS Certification Audits, we also offer a range of complimentary services:
- ISO Certifications
- ISO 9001 – Quality Management System
- ISO 14001 – Environmental Management System
- ISO 45001 – Occupational Health & Safety Management System
- ISO 50001 – Energy Management System
- ISO 27001 – Information Security Management System
- ISO 20000 – IT Service Management System
- ISO 22000 – Food Safety Management System
- FSSC 22000 – Food Safety System Certification
- HACCP – Food Safety Management System
- ISO 21001 – Educational Organizations Management System
- ISO 29990 – Learning Services Management System
- ISO 20121 – Sustainability Event Management System
- ISO 22301 – Business Continuity Management System
- ISO 37001 – Anti-Bribery Management System
- ISO 28000 – Supply Chain Security Management System
- ISO 13485 – Quality Management Systems for Medical Devices
- ISO 39001 – Road Traffic Safety Management System
- ISO 31000 – Risk Management – Guidelines
- ISO 22716 – Good Manufacturing Practices for Cosmetics
- ISO 3834 – Quality Requirements for Fusion Welding of Metallic Materials
- Halal Certification
- “Covid-Shield” Certification
- GlobalG.A.P. Certification
Would you mind sending an Enquiry so we can assist you in getting certified?