Abbreviation for the "International Featured Standards" set of rules with a series of food, product and service standards. It was developed in 2003 by representatives of the European food retail trade as the "International Food Standard" and was used for the standardised inspection of food safety and the quality level of producers. After several updates and the development of further standards, the brand was renamed to its current name. The name was changed following an expansion of the subject area. The IFS standards are intended to ensure that certified companies produce a compliant product or provide a service in accordance with the specifications agreed with the customer and work constantly on improvement via a continuous process. The standards and their requirements (checklists) are aimed at various participants in the supply chain.
The IFS includes IFS Broker (trading activities), IFS Cash&Carry / Wholesale (handling activities of loose and packaged products), IFS Food (formerly International Food Standard), IFS Food Store, IFS HPC (household and personal care products), IFS Logistics (transport) and IFS PACsecure (packaging). Certification is carried out by accredited certifiers such as DQS (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Qualität e. V.), Bureau Veritas, ECOCERT, ICEA, TÜV (Technischer Überwachungs-Verein) or SGS. The IFS standards are based on the ISO 9001 standard (quality management) and also include the principles of GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) and HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points).
In addition to the requirements that must be met, there are also ten knock-out criteria that rule out IFS certification if they are met. These include inadequate staff hygiene, lack of corrective measures and lack of traceability. Version 4 also incorporates current EU legislation regarding the handling of allergens and genetically modified organisms. IFS is increasingly being used by larger production companies for quality control during the winemaking process. Every single wine from the vine to bottling (from the vineyard to the cellar) is precisely recorded, thus guaranteeing 100% traceability. A complete list of relevant keywords on this topic can be found under quality control.
