What is IFS (International Food Standard)
The Food Safety Standard IFS (International Food Standard) has been developed by the German & French Retailers Association for private label products, export products and supermarket products. It is more specialized, detailed and demanding than ISO 22000 and it mainly addresses to export businesses (United Kingdom, America and other European countries) that have the appropriate infrastructure to meet the increased requirements. It is mainly applied to companies that are interested in exporting their products overseas and that is required by their suppliers.
Structure of the IFS standard:
- Management’s Responsibility
- Food Safety & Quality Management System
- Resource management
- Production process
- Measurement, Analysis, Improvement
IFS standard requirements
The IFS standards include, among others, a series of requirements whose fulfilment is obligatory (knock-out) and as these are described below:
- Liability of the administration
- Control system for each Critical Control Point
- Hygiene of Personnel
- Specifications of raw material
- Specifications of end product
- Management of foreign bodies
- Traceability system
- Internal audits
- Procedure for withdrawal and withdrawal
- Corrective actions
Steps to develop and install the IFS (International Food Standard)
- Talk about your organization’s requirements and the timetable for implementation
- Collecting information about the organization/business
- Organizing meetings with the company and collecting information by the administration
- Assessing and improving the logistics infrastructure (where required)
- Organization of the HACCP System
- Recording Procedures
- Preparation of Forms / Quality Files
- Recording of Work Guidelines
- Training of coordinator and food safety team
- Training of staff in the System
- Initial implementation of the System by the Organization / Enterprise
- Monitoring the system’s functionality
- Optimization of the system if necessary
- Certification of the System
- Support of the System after its Certification
To whom is IFS Certification addressing?
IFS can be implemented by any organization interested in improving the level of safety of the products it produces and the goods it manages, regardless of its size.
Key Benefits of IFS Certification
Key benefits of system certification are increased competitiveness and new partnerships with large supermarkets either abroad or in Cyprus, requiring their suppliers to be certified by IFS.