International Food Standard (ifs)

The International Food Standard (IFS) has been approved by the Global Food Safety Initiative and is specified as a contractual requirement by a growing number of German and French retailers who no longer accept BRC Global Standard - Food Certification.

http://www.globalfoodsafety.com

http://www.food-care.info

Have you got any experience of the IFS standard?
Is there much difference between the BRC and IFS standards?
What are the ramifications for the BRC standards?
Is it time the Brits (BRC) consolidated with Europe (IFS)?

Regards,
Simon

I am currently working towards our first IFS audit at the end of April.

The standard is almost identical to the BRC, with just a few additions, but the big difference is that in IFS you get a score.

I will try and find something to attach on the scoring system but basically there are 4 level for each clause A, B, C, D ( A everything in place, D nothing in place). If you get a major non conformance 500 points are deducted and then it is difficult to pass....... I'll dig out an attachment to explain.

There are 5 clauses known as KO clauses (knock out) if you have not got these then don't go for the standard:

HACCP Determine a manageable amount of CCPs that are relevant for the specific sector

HACCP Establish a system to monitor control of thr CCPs, records shall be maintained. The defined CCps shall be under control.

Management Commitment The Organisation's directors shall ensure that all employees are aware of their responsibilities and mechanisms are in place to monitor the effectiveness of their operation.

Traceability The organisation shall demonstrate the ability to trace each product backward to processing plant and raw material organisations, and forwards to delivery point.

Corrective action Corrective actions shall be undertaken in a temely manner to prevent further occurence of non conformity.

Scoring

Hi Yorky,

It's interesting to hear that the standards are almost identical. I get it, the Germans et al. didn't want to adopt The (British) BRC Food Standard (why would they?) so they copied it, added a few bells and whistles and called it the 'International Food Standard.' Why can't these dim-witted bureaucrats get it together?

So when you are ready Yorky will you have a combined audit e.g. BRC/IFS or do you have to have separate audits to get the badges?

I do find the idea of scoring quite sexy and the KO sounds ace. Seriously scoring does allow customers to differentiate between higher and lower level performing suppliers, as well as providing suppliers with a baseline measure for continuous improvement.

I'm sure the 'International Packaging Standard (IPS)' won't be too far behind. You can hear a thousand UK Packaging Quality Professionals groan at the prospect of telling the MD - "Boss we got to get another badge."

I think SaferPak should try to initiate some dialogue with the British Retail Consortium to see what their position is regarding the future of the BRC Standards, possible consolidation with IFS etc. What do you think? Ideas?

Regards,
Simon

Simon,

I think you hit the nail on the head that they didn't like the word "British" in the title. Why do you think the BRC renamed it the "Global Food Standard"?

The first copy I had of IFS, version 2, was definitely copied from the BRC as on the bottom of some pages it had "BRC Technical Standard version 2002".

At the moment we are having a single audit against the IFS but the next one we have will be combined IFS / BRC

What we should all be pushing for is worldwide recognition of Global Food Safety Initiative recognised standards. This would mean that German retailers could accept the BRC and UK retailers accept the IFS.

What we should all be pushing for is worldwide recognition of Global Food Safety Initiative recognised standards. This would mean that German retailers could accept the BRC and UK retailers accept the IFS.

Yes,

Exactly and therein lies the difficulty. Perhaps we should just wait until the dust settles on this.

Regards,
Simon

The totally differences of IFS (version 4 - Jan 2004) from BRC (issue 3 - March 2003) are Allergen Risk and Traceability - Genetically Modified Organism (GMO), the rests are sligtly changed, e.g. quality policy shall be addressed the environmental issue and ethics.

As I have written at one of the other Topics, the main differences are the focus on HACCP and stuff from ISO 9001:2000.

And one other is coming in mind: IFS was since the beginning following ISO 19011.