International Featured Standards

IFS Food is one of the most widely used food safety and quality certification standards in the world, and it sits under the wider family of IFS (International Featured Standards). It was created by German, French, and Italian retailers and wholesalers who wanted one common standard for auditing the safety and quality of their food suppliers — particularly the companies making private-label (retailer own-brand) product. That heritage still shapes it: IFS Food is retailer-driven, detailed, and built to give buyers confidence that a supplier can consistently produce safe, legal product to specification.

IFS Food is recognized by GFSI (the Global Food Safety Initiative), so an IFS certificate is accepted alongside schemes like BRCGS, FSSC 22000, and SQF by buyers who require a GFSI-benchmarked standard. And like BRCGS, IFS Food is graded — you do not simply pass or fail. Your site earns a level based on how the audit goes, and that level appears on your certificate for customers to see. Where IFS tends to dominate is continental European retail supply, especially Germany, France, and Italy, and increasingly wherever those retailers source.

IFS Food is aimed at companies that process food or handle unpackaged food products and want a certificate their retail customers will trust on sight. If a German, French, Italian, or other European retailer — or a brand that supplies them — is in your customer list, there is a good chance IFS is the scheme they name, particularly for own-brand work. Typical candidates include:

• Food manufacturers and processors of chilled, frozen, ambient, and fresh products
• Private-label suppliers making product under a retailer's own brand
• Bakery, ready-meal, beverage, confectionery, and dairy producers
• Meat, seafood, and fresh produce processors
• Ingredient and raw-material suppliers to other manufacturers
• Sites that pack or repack food where the product is exposed

The decision usually comes down to a single question: which scheme do your buyers require? Retailers often specify IFS by name, and they may also care about the level you achieve. We help you confirm that requirement up front and target not just certification but a strong result the first time, because in a retailer-driven world the level is part of your reputation.

The standard is organized around a set of requirement areas, and a number of them are designated KO (knock-out) criteria — requirements so important that a serious failure against one can prevent certification altogether. Across the standard you will need to demonstrate:

• Senior management responsibility, with clear commitment, resources, and customer focus
• A HACCP-based food safety plan built on Codex principles, forming the backbone of hazard control
• A documented food safety and quality management system that people actually use
• Resource management, covering personnel hygiene, training, protective clothing, and facilities
• Operational processes — from product development and purchasing through production, packaging, and delivery
• Product control, including allergen management, product authenticity and food-fraud prevention, and labeling
• Measurements, analysis, and improvement — internal audits, traceability, complaint handling, and recall
• A food defense assessment to protect product from deliberate contamination

Certification follows an on-site audit against the standard. Findings are scored, KO and major non-conformities are weighted heavily, and the overall score determines whether you certify and at what level. Audits are then repeated on a regular cycle, and IFS offers both announced and unannounced audit options.

For many suppliers, IFS Food is simply the price of entry. If your target retailers require it, you cannot supply them without it, and a strong result can be the difference between winning and losing a listing — especially for own-brand contracts. One credible audit replaces the burden of repeated customer inspections and shows every buyer that your site is safe, legal, and in control.

The benefits run deeper than the certificate on the wall. Working to the IFS requirements sharpens your hazard control, tightens allergen and authenticity management, and reduces the risk of complaints, recalls, and product holds that quietly drain profit. Because the result is scored and leveled, it also gives your team a clear, motivating target and gives your customers a quick read on how well-run your site is. Achieved well, IFS strengthens your commercial position, not just your compliance file.

We have been guiding food and manufacturing companies to certification for more than 30 years, and more than 900 organizations have earned their certificates working with us. Every one of them passed the certification audit the first time, which is why we can point to a 100% first-time pass rate, and most reach certification in a typical 5 to 9 months.

Our proven 10-Step Approach is built for exactly the kind of scored, retailer-driven audit IFS puts you through. We begin by confirming IFS is the scheme your customers want, then move through gap assessment, planning, documentation, training, implementation, and internal auditing before the audit itself. We do the work alongside your team, coaching your people so the system belongs to them, and we prepare specifically for the KO criteria and scoring that drive your result, so you walk in aiming high rather than hoping to scrape through.

We also keep the paperwork sane. Our single-level documentation stays under 200 pages — one clear, usable level instead of the towering multi-tier manuals other consultants leave behind. That is not just tidier; it is what makes the system easy to run every day and easy to defend under a demanding IFS auditor.

• Tripping on a KO criterion. A serious failure against a knock-out requirement can sink the whole audit. We make sure those are rock solid.
• Aiming only to pass. IFS is scored and leveled, and your customers notice the level. We prepare you to earn a strong result, not a bare pass.
• Weak allergen and authenticity controls. These are frequent sources of non-conformities. We build them in properly.
• Documentation overload. Multi-tier manuals nobody reads. We keep it to one lean, usable level.
• Food defense and food fraud treated as afterthoughts. Both are explicit parts of the standard. We address them head-on.
• No real internal audit capability. If you cannot audit yourself, you cannot hold your level. We train your team to sustain it.