IFS - International Featured Standard

Quality and Safety throughout the whole supply chain

The expectations of consumers regarding the quality and safety are increasing all the time. The International Featured Standard (IFS) enables a full audit of the quality along the entire supply chain. Our experts and auditors are your reliable partners on your journey to your IFS certification.

Do you have any questions about certification according to IFS? We will be happy to help you!

Your IFS certification at a glance

With the high quality awareness of consumers, manufacturers’ expectations of their suppliers are also increasing. Transparency and the consistent quality of raw materials and processed products are essential criteria for consolidating and improving your market position.

When certifying your company, our experts primarily consider the areas of corporate responsibility, the quality and product safety management system, resource management, service delivery, measurements, analyses, improvements and product protection.

IFS Categories

The IFS was developed by the Hauptverband des Deutschen Einzelhandels (HDE) and the Fédération des Entreprises du Commerce et de la Distribution (FDC). Its aim is to implement food safety throughout the supply chain and thereby create a sustainable sense of trust between suppliers and manufacturers. The IFS Food Standard, which is recognized by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), was published in 2003 as the first standard in the IFS series for international food, product and service standards and has been regularly updated ever since.

Along similar lines to other management system standards, the IFS Food Standard focuses on product quality and safety. By concentrating on the processes rather than the methodology, the standard is easy to apply to all of those involved in the food chain. At the same time, the standard is easy to implement in existing quality management systems and offers an holistic approach with the following requirements criteria:

Corporate governance and obligations
Food safety and quality management system
Resource management
Activities according to the IFS Food Audit
Measurements, analyses, improvements

Objective of the IFS Food Standard

IFS aims to provide organizations with the guidelines and tools for adopting best practices, performing appropriate risk assessments and promoting a culture of product safety and quality.

The IFS Logistics standard was developed in 2006 to provide reliable transparency throughout the entire international supply chain and is part of the International Featured Standards (IFS) series. The standard applies to companies that provide logistics services such as transport and storage, and can be applied to the transport of products by trains, heavy goods vehicles, ships and aircraft, as well as to storage facilities. The products covered by the standard include packaged and unpackaged food (refrigerated and non-refrigerated) and products that need to be stored under specific conditions, such as perishable food, but also non-food products such as personal care and household goods as well as bulk goods, such as grains or oil. In the case of unpackaged foods, care must be taken to ensure that these may not undergo processing or primary packaging at the certified company.

The certification according to IFS Logistics comprises the following areas:

Transport
Distribution
Loading
Food and non-food sampling

To meet the constantly changing requirements surrounding logistics activities in the food and non-food sectors, the IFS Logistics was updated in 2021 and the new Version 2.3 was published. This version entered into effect in October 2021 and has applied to all audits ever since.

The IFS Broker Standard was developed by International Featured Standards (IFS), and was first published in 2010. It applies to brokers as well as sales agencies and importers in the food, HPC products and packaging industries. The aim was to introduce a uniform standard for intermediaries or importers (brokers), in order ensure comparability and transparency throughout the supply chain. This makes it possible to save both costs and time for suppliers and retailers on an effective and sustainable basis.

In addition to the core aspects, the standard covers the following topics:

Responsibility of the management team
Resource management
Planning and service processes
Measurements, analysis and improvements
Product protection

To put the focus on awareness, communication and continuous improvement in the area of the safety and quality of products throughout the supply chain, IFS Broker Version 3 was introduced.

Due to the exacting requirements placed on logistics safety management systems according to IFS Logistics (IFS: International Featured Standards), small or less developed companies frequently lack the required proof of compliance for their storage and transport processes for food and non-food products. The IFS Progress Logistics program was developed to address precisely this problem. The program aims to increase the acceptance for these companies throughout the supply chain and to enable them to access the national and, where appropriate, international markets.

The program is aimed specifically at service providers in the logistics industry and applies to the storage and transport processes for both food and non-food products. The program supports companies in the following areas:

Development
Assessment

The IFS Progress Logistics program consists of two stages, the basic stage and intermediate stage and encompasses a checklist and an associated assessment protocol. These are used as the basis for verifying the implementation and continuous improvement of an holistic and functioning product safety system.

IFS Progress Food is a standardized food safety assessment program for retail and private label food products. It is primarily aimed at small companies and companies whose food safety systems are currently insufficiently developed. The objective is to help these companies to develop their food safety system step by step and to thereby give them the chance to participate in both national and international food markets.

This enables small companies to integrate a functioning food safety system into their operation with a relatively low cost and workload. For this purpose, the IFS Progress Food Program offers various checklists and an assessment protocol to support a continuous improvement process for the implementation of a food safety system.

The program consists of two stages, the basic stage and the intermediate stage. To achieve IFS Food certification at the end of the program, the requirements of both stages have to be fulfilled. A specific timeframe is set for achieving such fulfillment.

The IFS certification procedure

1. Project Meeting
Clarification of outstanding issues and determination of next steps

2. On-site IFS audit
Description of your management system, verification of your quality capability towards your customers and implementation of the documented statements in your daily business

3. Audit report and assessment
Evaluation of the results, possibly with a presentation of potential for optimizations. Please note that this process step has different requirements for the different IFS categories.

4. Certificate
After successfully completing the certification process, you will receive your IFS certificate (usually with a validity period of one year)

5. Recertification
A recertification audit is carried out every year and least every third audit takes place unannounced.

Benefit from our expertise as an accredited IFS certification body

You can trust in our longstanding experience in the fields of food safety and quality management systems.
Save time and money through our combined certifications, with other IFS standards, for example.
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