IFS Broker2 en

IFS Broker
Standard for auditing

Trading Agencies, Importers and Brokers services compliance
in relation to product quality and safety
Version 2
October 2013
IFS publishes information, opinions and bulletins to its best knowledge, but cannot take
any responsibility for any mistakes, omissions or possibly misleading information in its
publications, especially in this document.
The Standard owner of the present document is:
IFS Management GmbH

Am Weidendamm 1A
10117 Berlin
Germany
Managing Director: StephanTromp

AG Charlottenburg HRB 136333 B
VAT-N: DE278799213
Bank: Berliner Sparkasse

Bank code number: 100 500 00
Account number: 190 029 765
IBAN number: DE96 1005 0000 0190 02 97 65
BIC-/Swift-Code: BE LA DE BE
All rights reserved. All publications are protected under international copyright laws. With-
out the expressed written consent of the IFS Standard owner any kind of unauthorised use
is prohibited and subject to legal action.This also applies to the reproduction with a photo-
copier, the inclusion into an electronic database/software, or the reproduction on CD-Rom.
No translation may be made without official permission by the IFS Standard owner.
The english version is the original and reference document.
The IFS Broker is available online via:

www.ifs-certification.com
Or by Mail, Fax and E-mail:

IFS Management GmbH
Am Weidendamm 1A
10117 Berlin
Germany
Phone: +49-(0) 30-72 62 50-74

Fax: +49-(0) 30-72 62 50-79
E-Mail: [email protected]
IFS Broker
Standard for auditing

Trading Agencies, Importers and Brokers services compliance
in relation to product quality and safety
Version 2
October 2013
International Featured Standard IFS Broker Version 2 3
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
IFS would like to thank to all participants who participated in the development and improve-
ment of the new version of the IFS Broker Standard. Your input and opinions were a big sup-
port to IFS. IFS is grateful to the members of the IFS InternationalTechnical Committee and the
associated national working groups in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and United States.
Members of the IFS International Technical Committee

Andrea Artoni CONAD, on behalf of ANCD (Associazone Nazionale Cooperative tra Dettaglianti), Italy
Sabrina Bianchini Det Norske Veritas, Italy
Sebastien Bian EMC Distribution Groupe Casino, France
Fayal Bellatif Eurofins certification, France
Frederico Comellini COOP, on behalf of ANCC (Associazone Nazionale Cooperative Consumatori), Italy
Elena Costa Auchan, on behalf of Federdistribuzione, Italy
Cristina Diez Palacios Alimenticios, Spain
Gerald Erbach METRO AG, Germany
Frank Ferko US Foods, USA
Ccile Gillard-Kaplan Groupe Carrefour, France
Almudena Hernandez AENOR, Spain
Luc Horemans Scamark Groupement Leclerc, France
Maria Lopez
de Montenegro DIA, Spain
Grard Matre Les Sauniers de lIle de R
Dr. Joachim Mehnert DQS, Germany
Dr. Angela Moritz REWE Group; REWE-Zentral-AG, Germany
Alberto Peiro Mercadona, Spain
Bizhan Pourkomailian Mc Donalds Europe, United Kingdom
Horst Roeser COOP, Switzerland
Nuria Sanz El Cort Ingls, Spain
StephenThome Dawn Food Products, USA
Bert Urlings Vion Food,The Netherlands
Karin Vo EDEKA Zentrale AG & Co. KG, Germany
Roman Winer HARIBO GmbH & Co. KG, Germany
Stefano Zardetto Voltan, Italy
IFS is also pleased to acknowledge the helpful contributions provided by the

following persons for the review:
Karen Baethke Edeka Handelsgesellschaft Rhein-Ruhr mbH, Germany
Heinz Langmack auditpartner GmbH, Germany
Andrea Niemann-
Haberhausen DNV Germany GmbH
Andreas Petke tegut... Gutberlet Stiftung & Co., Germany
Kevin Swoffer KPS Resources Ltd., United Kingdom
IFS Team
Helga Barrios Project Manager
George Gansner Marketing/Business Development Director
Dr. Helga Hippe Quality Assurance Management Director
Seon Kim IFS Shop Manager
Christin Kluge Quality Assurance Project Manager
Nina Lehmann IFS Project Manager Academy/Marketing/Communications
Stphanie Lemaitre Technical Director
Lucie Leroy Project Manager
Clemens Mahnecke Technical Project Manager
Marek Marzec IFS Business consultant Central/Eastern Europe
Caroline Nowak IFS Representative, South America
IFS, October 2013

4 International Featured Standard IFS Broker Version 2
Ksenia Otto IFS Office Manager

Sabine Podewski Auditor Management
Sandra Schulte Project Manager
Nadja Schmidt Project Manager
Serena Venturi Project Manager
StephanTromp Managing Director
As part of the review process of the Standard, test audit has

also been performed. We would like to thank the following
company for its involvement:
ObstTrautner GmbH, Grfenberg, Germany
IFS, October 2013

Table of contents
Part 1: Audit Protocol
1 The history of the International Featured Standards

and IFS Broker Standard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.1 Purpose and contents of the audit protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.2 Extraordinary information to the certification body
by the certified company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3 Types of audit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.1 Initial audit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.2 Follow-up audit ........................................ 14
3.3 Renewal audit (for recertification) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.4 Extension audit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
4 Scope of the audit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
5 The certification process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

5.1 Preparation of an audit ................................. 18
5.2 Certification body selection contractual arrangements . 19
5.3 Duration of an audit .................................... 20
5.4 Drawing up an audit time schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
5.5 Evaluation of requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
5.5.1 Scoring a requirement as a deviation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
5.5.2 Scoring a requirement as a non-conformity . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
5.5.2.1 Major non-conformity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
5.5.2.2 KO (Knock Out) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
5.5.3 Scoring a requirement with N/A (not applicable) . . . . . . . . . 24
5.6 Determination of the audit frequency ................... 25
5.7 Audit report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
5.7.1 Structure of the audit report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
5.7.2 The different steps for the audit report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
5.7.2.1 Drawing up the pre-report of the audit and the outline
of the action plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
5.7.2.2 Companys completion of the corrective action plan . . . . . 27
5.7.2.3 Auditor validation of the action plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
5.7.3 Further rules about the audit report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
5.7.3.1 Link between two consecutive audit reports
(initial and renewal audits) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
IFS, October 2013

5.7.3.2 Translation of the audit report .......................... 28

5.8 Scoring and conditions for issuing audit report and
certificate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
5.8.1 Specific management of the audit process (report,
certificate, uploading) in case one or several KOs has/have
been scored with D during the audit (see also Annex 3) . . 30
5.8.2 Specific management of the audit process (report,
certificate, uploading) in case one or several Major non-
conformity(ies) has/have been issued (see also Annex 3) . 31
5.8.3 Specific management of the audit process in case the final
score is < 75 % . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
5.8.4 Specific management of the audit process in case
of multi-location companies with central management . . . 33
6 Awarding the certificate ................................ 33

6.1 Deadlines for awarding certificate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
6.2 Certification cycle ...................................... 34
6.3 Information about conditions of withdrawal of certificate . 35
7 Distribution and storage of the audit report ............. 36
8 Supplementary action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
9 Appeal and complaints procedure ...................... 36
10 Ownership and usage of the IFS Broker Logo ........... 37
11 Review of the Standard ................................ 38
12 IFS Integrity Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

12.1 Preventive quality assurance actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
12.2 Quality assurance actions after complaint notification . . . . 39
12.3 Sanctions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
ANNEX 1
Clarification for the scope application of the different IFS Standards 42
ANNEX 2
Certification process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
ANNEX 3
Flow chart for management of KO scored with D and Major
non-conformities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
ANNEX 4
Product scopes for traded goods, which shall be specified
in the report and certificate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
IFS, October 2013

Part 2: IFS Broker 2 requirements
1 Senior Management Responsibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

1.1 Corporate policy/Corporate principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
1.2 Corporate structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
1.3 Management review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
2 Quality and product safety Management System . . . . . . . . 50

2.1 Risk Management/HACCP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
2.2 Documentation requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
2.3 Record keeping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3 Resource Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
4 Planning and Services Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

4.1 Contract agreement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
4.2 Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
4.3 Product development/Product modification/Modification
of production processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
4.4 Purchasing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
4.5 Product packaging ..................................... 54
4.6 Traceability (including GMOs and allergens) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
4.7 Logistics activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
5 Measurements, Analysis, Improvements ................ 56

5.1 Internal audits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
5.2 Product analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
5.3 Product quarantine and product release . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
5.4 Management of complaints from authorities and customers 57
5.5 Management of incidents, product withdrawal,
product recall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
5.6 Management of non-conformities and non conforming
products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
5.7 Corrective actions ...................................... 59
6 Food/product defense assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
ANNEX 1
Glossary/Definitions list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
ANNEX 2
Compulsory fields to be completed by the auditor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
IFS, October 2013

Part 3: Requirements for Accreditation Bodies, Certification

Bodies and Auditors
IFS accreditation and certification process
0 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
1 Requirements for the Accreditation Bodies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

1.1 General requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
1.2 The training of the accreditation committee (or competent
person) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
1.3 Competences of the assessor of the accreditation body . . 70
1.4 Frequency of the assessments of certification bodies . . . . . 70
1.5 Accreditation of an internationally-active certification body 71
1.6 Conditions for recovering accreditation after withdrawal
or suspension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
1.7 Transfer of certification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
2 Requirements for the Certification Bodies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

2.1 ISO/IEC 17065 IFS accreditation process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
2.2 Signing of contract with the proprietor of IFS . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
2.3 Certification decision ................................... 72
2.4 Certification bodies responsibilities for IFS trainers
(for IFS Food or IFS PACsecure auditors)
and the IFS auditors (including freelancers) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
2.5 Specific requirements for IFS trainers (for IFS Food or
IFS PACsecure auditors) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
3 Requirements for IFS Broker auditors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

3.1 Requirements for IFS Broker auditors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
3.2 Requirements for IFS Broker auditors, approved
to perform combined audits IFS Broker and
IFS product standards (IFS HPC, IFS Food,
IFS PACsecure) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
3.3 IFS Broker training ..................................... 77
3.4 Audit team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
3.5 Maintaining IFS Broker auditor qualification . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
IFS, October 2013

Part 4: Reporting, auditXpressTM Software and IFS Audit portal
0 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
1 Reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
1.1 Audit overview (Annex 1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
1.2 Audit report (Annex 2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
1.3 Action plan (Annex 3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
1.4 Minimum requirements for IFS certificate (Annex 4) ..... 81
2 auditXpressTM Software ................................ 82
3 The IFS Audit portal and the IFS Database

(www.ifs-certification.com) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
ANNEX 1
Audit Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
ANNEX 2
Audit Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
ANNEX 3
Action plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
ANNEX 4
Certificate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
ANNEX
Checklist of the IFS Broker, Version 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
IFS, October 2013

Part 1: Audit Protocol
1 The history of the International Featured

Standards and IFS Broker Standard
Supplier audits have been a permanent feature of retailers systems and

procedures for many years. Until 2003 they were performed by the qual-
ity assurance departments of the individual retailers, wholesalers and
food services. The ever-rising demands of consumers, the increasing
liabilities of retailers, wholesalers and food services, the increasing of
legal requirements and the globalisation of product supply, all made it
essential to develop a uniform process/service compliance, quality
assurance and food safety Standard. Also, a solution had to be found to
reduce the time associated with a multitude of audits for involved stake-
holders.
The associated members of the German retail federation Handelsver-

band Deutschland (HDE) and of its French counterpart Fdration
des Entreprises du Commerce et de la Distribution (FCD) drew up a
quality and food safety standard for retailer branded food products
named IFS Food, which is intended to allow the assessment of suppli-
ers products/processes quality and safety in accordance with a uni-
form approach. This Standard is now managed by IFS Management
GmbH, a company owned by FCD and HDE.
The first standard of the IFS Standard family was IFS Food, which was
launched at first in Germany in 2003. An updated version was published
in January 2004 which was developed by French and German retailers.
Within 2005/2006, the Italian federation joined the IFS Working Groups
and the development of IFS Food Version 5 was a collaboration of retail
federations from France, Germany, Italy, as well as retailers from Aus-
tria and Switzerland.
For the current IFS Food Version 6, the International Technical Commit-
tee and the national Working Groups from France, Germany (for the
whole German speaking area), Italy, Spain and North America have
been actively involved, in addition to retailers, stakeholders and repre-
sentatives of industry, food services and certification bodies from all
over the world. Currently, IFS Food has been developed and supported
by food industry from Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Netherland,
Spain, Switzerland, USA as well as experts from other European coun-
tries, Asia and South America.
It is the aim of most retailers and producers to have transparency over

their whole international supply chain. In times of globalisation, sourc-
ing of products is done globally in different ways. More and more bro-
kers, trading agencies and importers are becoming an important way of
bringing producers and retailers together. The main objective of IFS
IFS, October 2013

Broker is to ensure broker services compliance and to check how bro-

kers, trading agencies and importers select their suppliers/products,
what quality/product safety requirements they have implemented and
if they are able to fulfill current legal requirements.
In order to prevent brokers, trading agencies and importers from being

overwhelmed by different requirements, IFS has developed the IFS Bro-
ker version 1 in 2009.
After 3 years of implementation of version 1, experience and recom-

mendations of review have been made from the market. So IFS made
the decision to review version 1 and to develop IFS Broker version 2.
With the help of inputs received by all stakeholders, the following goals
have been defined, which were the basis for the revision of the IFS Bro-
ker version 1:
to exclude duplications,
to check the requirements for understanding,
to adapt the Standard to meet current legislation,
to align audit protocol with the other IFS standards,
to include a food defense check-list in the general audit check-
list,
to include all IFS doctrines,
to improve understanding of audit protocol,
to specify the applicability to the trading of packaging materials,
to update the Standard in accordance with new version of GFSI
Guidance Document.
The new IFS Broker version 2 will come into force from 1st of April 2014.
After this date, only IFS Broker version 2 audits shall be performed and
will be accepted.
The IFS Broker Standard is one of the Standards belonging to the

umbrella brand IFS (International Featured Standards).
The Standard is applicable for trading of food products, household and

personal care products as well as packaging materials. The audited
companies such as brokers, trading agencies or importers usually do
not take physical possession of the products (e.g. they do not have
warehouses, packing stations or truck fleet, but are legal entities with
offices). If the trading company has own logistical facilities and would
like to certify these activities, IFS requires a combined audit, addition-
ally according to IFS Logistics to certify all quality/safety influencing
activities of the company. If a (food or HPC or packaging) processing
company also has broker services and would like to certify both activi-
ties, a combined audit, respectively IFS Food or IFS HPC or IFS PAC
secure and IFS Broker shall be performed.
IFS, October 2013

The fundamental objectives of IFS Broker are:

to ensure broker services compliance,
to establish a common standard with a uniform evaluation sys-
tem,
to work with accredited certification bodies and qualified IFS
approved auditors,
to ensure comparability and transparency throughout the entire
supply chain,
to reduce costs and time for both suppliers and retailers.
2 Introduction
2.1 Purpose and contents of the audit protocol
This audit protocol describes the specific requirements made on the

organisations involved in IFS Broker audits.
The purpose of the protocol is to define the criteria to be followed by a

certification body performing audits against the IFS requirements and
in accordance with the accreditation norm ISO/IEC 17065.
It also details the procedures to be observed by the companies being

audited and clarifies the rationale of auditing them. Only certification
bodies accredited to ISO/IEC 17065 norm for the scope of IFS Broker,
and which have signed an agreement with the scheme owner, can per-
form audits against the IFS Broker Standard and can issue IFS certifi-
cates. The requirements for certification bodies are clearly described in
Part 3 of this document.
2.2 Extraordinary information to the certification body

by the certified company
In accordance with ISO/IEC 17065, the company shall inform its certifi-
cation body about any change that may affect its ability to conform with
the certification requirements (e.g. recall, alert on products, etc.). This
information shall be made within 3 working days.
IFS, October 2013

3 Types of audit
3.1 Initial audit
An initial audit is a companys first audit to IFS Broker. It is performed at

a time and date agreed between the company and the selected certifica-
tion body. During this audit, the entire company is audited, both in rela-
tion to its documentation and the processes/services themselves. Dur-
ing the audit, all IFS requirements shall be assessed by the auditor. In
the case of a pre-audit, the auditor who performs this audit shall be
different from the auditor who performs the initial audit.
3.2 Follow-up audit
A follow-up audit is required in a specific situation when the results of

the audit (an initial audit or a renewal audit) have been insufficient to
allow the award of the certificate (see chart N 6). During the follow-up
audit, the auditor focuses on the implementation of the actions taken to
correct the Major non-conformity determined during the previous audit.
The follow-up audit shall be performed within a six months period from
the date of the previous audit. In general, the auditor who performed
the audit where a Major non-conformity has been identified shall per-
form the follow-up audit.
If there is no follow-up audit performed after 6 months from the date of
the previous audit, then a complete new audit is necessary.
In the event that the follow-up audit establishes that requirements
remain inadequate, a complete new audit is necessary. The elimination
of Major non-conformities shall always be established by an on-site
visit by the auditor.
3.3 Renewal audit (for recertification)
Renewal audits are those which are performed after the initial audit.The
period in which a renewal audit shall be performed is shown on the
certificate. A renewal audit involves a full and thorough audit of a com-
pany resulting in the issue of a new certificate. During the audit, all IFS
requirements shall be assessed by the auditor. Particular attention is
paid to the deviations and non-conformities identified during the previ-
ous audit, as well as to the effectiveness and implementation of correc-
tive actions and preventive measures laid down in the companys cor-
rective action plan.
Note: corrective action plans from the previous audit shall always be
assessed by the auditor, even if the previous audit has been performed
more than one year ago. Therefore, audited companies shall always
inform their certification body, if they have already been IFS certified in
the past.
IFS, October 2013

The date of the renewal audit shall be calculated from the date of the
initial audit and not from the date of issue of the certificate. Further-
more, the renewal audit can be scheduled at earliest 8 weeks before and
at latest 2 weeks after the renewal audit due date (see also section 6.2).
Companies are responsible for maintaining their certification. All IFS
certified companies will receive a reminder from the IFS audit portal
three months before certification expiration.
The certification bodies shall contact companies in advance in order to

set a date for a new audit.
In general, the expected date of each audit shall be uploaded in the IFS
audit portal, in the diary function and at latest 2 weeks (14 calendar
days) before the audit due date (it is possible to change the date short
term).
3.4 Extension audit
If, between two certification audits, new products/services different

from those included in the scope of the current IFS audit are added in
the broker services, the certified company shall immediately inform its
certification body, who shall perform a risk assessment to decide
whether an extension audit should be performed or not. The results of
this risk assessment, based on product safety risks, shall be docu-
mented.
In case the certification body has decided that these new products
and/or services shall be included in the audit scope and that the audit
scope would need to be updated on the certificate, then, for an IFS Bro-
ker certified company, it is not necessary to perform a complete new
audit, but to organise an on-site extension audit during the validity
period of the existing certificate.The certification body is responsible for
determining relevant requirements to be audited and relevant audit
duration. The report of this extension audit shall be represented as an
annex adjoined with the current audit report. Conditions for passing the
extension audit (relative score 75 %) are the same as normal one, but
only focused on specific requirements which have been audited; the
original audit score does not change.
If the extension audit demonstrates compliance, the certificate shall be

updated with the new scope and uploaded in the audit portal.
The updated certificate shall keep the same due date of end of validity
as the current certificate.
If, during the extension audit, a Major non-conformity or a KO (Knock

Out non-conformity) has been identified, the full audit is failed and the
current certificate shall be suspended as described in 5.8.1 and 5.8.2.
IFS, October 2013

4 Scope of the audit

IFS Broker is a Standard for auditing/checking services compliance of
typically:
Broker/Middleman: person or company who acts as an agent

for others, as in negotiating contracts, purchases or sales in
return for a fee or commission.
Sales Agent: person or company who is authorized or appoint-

ed by a manufacturer to sell or distribute his products in a given
territory but who is in business for himself, takes title of the
goods and does not act as agent for a principal.
Trader/Dealer: person or company whose business is buying

and selling or bartering.
Importer: person or company who brings goods into a place or

country from another country with the purpose of selling.
The IFS Broker Standard applies to persons and/or companies who may
or may not own the products but typically who do not take physical pos-
session of the products (e.g. which do not have warehouses, packing
stations or truck fleet, but are legal entities with mailboxes, offices, etc.).
The main aim of the Standard is to assess the services compliance,
especially how the company selects and/or manages its suppliers for
the products demanded by the customers, how it is able to fulfil trace-
ability and other specific customer requirements of delivered products
and how to manage a product recall.
Note: in the following sections, all activities covered by the Standard

are named broker services.
IFS Broker only covers broker services related to food products, house-
hold and personal care products and packaging materials. If a (food or
HPC or packaging) processing company also has broker services and
would like to certify both activities, a combined audit, respectively IFS
Food or IFS HPC or IFS PAC secure and IFS Broker shall be performed.
IFS Broker shall not apply to the following activities:

processing of food or non-food products (see Part 1, Annex 1),
own logistics activities by taking over the physical possession
of the products.
For clarification of the scope determination between IFS Broker and
other IFS Standards (Food, Logistics, Cash & Carry/Wholesale, IFS PAC-
secure and HPC-Household and Personal Care) please see Part 1,
Annex 1.
The following scopes are defined for IFS Broker audits:
IFS, October 2013

Trading (logistical activities are excluded)

Food
Household and Personal Care (including cosmetics products,
household chemical products, articles of daily use, personal
hygiene products)
Packaging materials
A combination of above products.
The scope of the audit shall be defined and agreed between the com-
pany and the certification body before the audit takes place. The scope
shall be clearly and unambiguously stated in the contract between the
company and the certification body, in the audit report and on the cer-
tificate.
Note: in the audit report and on the certificate, the audit scope shall
describe the traded products/product group(s) for which the broker ser-
vices have been audited. For all products of the audit scope, the product
scopes (names and numbers) according to IFS Food, IFS HPC and IFS
PACsecure shall be specified in the audit scope of the audit report (Part 4,
Annex 1) and on the certificate (Part 4, Annex 4).
The audit shall be performed at a time to ensure the full broker services
and, in case of a combined audit, the logistical activities, as mentioned
in the report and on the certificate, can be effectively assessed. Only
these conditions would allow assessing properly the brokers services
compliance.
The audit scope shall include the complete broker services of the com-
pany. The scope shall be reviewed and agreed at the beginning of the
audit after an initial risk assessment. Furthermore, the scope can be
modified after the risk assessment (for instance, if a further activity
interferes with the one concerned by the audit scope).
If, under exceptional circumstances, the company decides to exclude

the broker services related to specific product groups from the scope of
the audit, then this shall be clearly noted and included in the audit report
and on the IFS certificate.
Combined certification IFS Broker 2/IFS Logistics 2:

If a trading company additionally has own logistics activities (storage,
distribution and/or transport) and would like to certify those, IFS Broker
certification is not applicable alone and a combined certification accord-
ing to IFS Broker and IFS Logistics shall be performed. The IFS Broker
certificate shall specify: The company also has own logistics activities,
which are IFS Logistics certified.
If no combined certification is performed but own logistics activities are

present or if the trading company doesnt want to include logistics activ-
ities in the scope of IFS certification, those activities shall be excluded
from the certificate and the IFS Broker certificate shall specify: The
company also has own logistics activities, which are not IFS Logistics
certified.
IFS, October 2013

Combined certification IFS Broker 2 and IFS Food or IFS HPC or IFS PAC-
secure:
IFS Broker only covers broker services, but if a (food or HPC or packag-
ing) processing company also has broker services and would like to
certify both activities, a combined audit, respectively IFS Food or IFS
HPC or IFS PAC secure and IFS Broker shall be performed. For this,
checklist of the relevant IFS Standard (Food or HPC or PACsecure)
should also be used.
If requirements of both check-lists are fulfilled, two separate reports

shall be written and two separate certificates shall be issued and
uploaded in the database.
Auditing of multi-location companies with central management
If defined processes/services are centrally organised in a company with

several sites (e.g. personnel management, complaint management),
the central managing site headquarter shall also be audited and rel-
evant audited requirements outcome shall be considered in the audit
reports of each site.
Note: each site shall be audited separately in a period of maximum

12 months after the central managing site and shall have its own audit
report and certificate. Each site shall be mentioned in the relevant con-
tract and shall be subject to its own report and certificate. If the central
managing site does not have any broker services, this site cannot be IFS
certified as an independent company. The time for auditing the central
managing site shall be described in the company profile of the report.
The audit of the managing site shall always take place before the audit
of each site in order to have a preliminary overview.
Note: if it is not possible to perform an audit at the managing site, then

it shall be ensured that, during the audit of each site, all necessary infor-
mation from the managing site is available (e.g. a representative of the
managing site should attend at the audit(s) of the site(s)).
5 The certification process
5.1 Preparation of an audit
Before being audited, the company shall review all requirements of the
IFS Broker Standard in detail. On the day of the audit, the current ver-
sion of the Standard shall be available at the site being audited. The
company is responsible for acquiring the current version of the Stand-
ard. In order to prepare for an initial audit, a company may carry out a
pre-audit, which is only intended to be used in-house.The pre-audit can-
not include any recommendations.
IFS, October 2013

If the audit is not an initial audit, the company shall also inform the cer-
tification body so that the auditor can check the corrective action plan
from the previous audit.
The expected date for the initial or renewal audit shall be communi-
cated to the IFS offices via the IFS audit portal.This shall be the respon-
sibility of the certification body.
5.2 Certification body selection contractual

arrangements
In order to undertake the IFS Broker audit, the company shall appoint a
certification body which is approved to perform such audits. Certifica-
tion bodies shall be accredited to ISO/IEC 17065 norm for the scope of
IFS Broker and shall have auditors which are approved to perform IFS
Broker audits (see Part 3). Only those IFS approved certification bodies,
which shall have signed a contract with IFS (see Part 3) can carry out
IFS Broker audits and issue certificates. The list of all IFS international
approved certification bodies, by country, is available on the website
www.ifs-certification.com.
IFS Broker audits can be carried out by an audit team, only if all mem-
bers of the audit team are approved IFS Broker auditors. Additional
requirements for audit teams are described in detail in Part 3 of the
Standard, chapter 3.4.
An auditor is not allowed to perform more than 3 consecutives audits of

the same companys site (whatever the time between audits); rules in
case of audit team are also detailed in Part 3, chapter 3.4.
A contract shall exist between the company and the certification body
detailing the scope of the audit, the duration and reporting require-
ments. The contract shall have a reference to Integrity Program (see
chapter 12), in relation to the possibility of on-site audits organized by
Quality Assurance Management of the IFS offices.
The audit shall take place when broker services of the companys audit
scope can be assessed.
The audit shall preferably be carried out in the language of the company
and the certification body shall make every attempt to appoint an audi-
tor whose native language or main working language is the language of
the company. Furthermore, languages used by the auditor for leading
an audit among native language shall be approved by IFS offices
prior to undertaking audits (see also Part 3).
It is the responsibility of the company to verify that the certification

body is accredited for IFS Broker certification.
IFS, October 2013

5.3 Duration of an audit
The certification bodies shall have an appropriate system for estimating

the minimum time needed for an audit.The minimum audit duration of
an IFS Broker audit shall be 6 hours.
A number of factors, which are detailed in the contract between the

certification body and the company, play a role in determining the time
required for a comprehensive audit.They include:
the size of the broker
the type of services process (only broker services or additional
logistics activities or combined audit IFS Broker with IFS Food
or IFS HPC or IFS PACsecure Standard)
the scope of the audit
the number of personnel employed at the site
the number of non-conformities found in the previous audit.
The audit duration might be extended depending on the above factors.

The above mentioned rules equally apply to renewal audits, which must
be considered as completely new audits.
A normal audit day duration is 8 hours.
The minimum audit duration does not include time for audit prepara-
tion and report generation.
Additionally, time for generation of the audit report is typically 0,5 days.
Note 1: for an audit team, at least 2 hours shall be allocated to the team
and not to an individual auditor for common tasks (e.g. opening and
closing meeting, discussion about audit findings, etc.).
See also Part 3, chapter 3.4 about audit team.
Note 2: for a combined audit IFS Broker/IFS Product Standard, it is
accepted to reduce the total duration (calculated separately for the audit
of each Standard) to maximum 0,5 days.
Note 3: for a combined audit IFS Broker/ IFS Logistics, the minimum
audit duration shall be 1.5 days.
5.4 Drawing up an audit time schedule
The certification body shall provide the audit time schedule. The audit
time schedule includes appropriate details concerning the scope cov-
ered and the complexity of the audit. The audit time schedule shall be
sufficiently flexible to respond to any unexpected events which may
arise during the site inspection activity within the certification audit.The
audit time schedule takes into consideration a review of the audit report
and action plan relating to the previous audit, whatever the date when
IFS, October 2013

the previous audit has been performed. It also specifies which of the
companys products or product ranges are to be audited. The company
can only be audited at a time when the broker services specified in the
scope of the audit can be assessed. The audit time schedule shall be
sent to the auditee before the audit, to ensure availability of responsible
persons at the day of the audit.
In case of an audit team, the audit time schedule shall clearly indicate
which auditor performs which part of the audit.
If the IFS audit is performed in combination with another standard/norm,

the audit time schedule shall clearly indicate when each standard or
part of it has been audited.
The audit shall be scheduled based on the following steps:

the opening meeting
the evaluation of services compliance, based on checking docu-
mentation (risk management, quality management, product
specifications, analysis results, etc.). During the audit, the audi-
tor shall ensure objective evidence is in place to establish if the
broker services are compliant, by delivering safe, legal and
conforming products. Therefore the auditor should use a prod-
uct sampling program where the corresponding finished prod-
uct specifications are used as a reference during the audit to
check the services conformity. Suggested products to be
selected are, but are not limited to:
a retailer branded product
a product traded in small quantities
a product traded in large quantities.
If the audit findings for the selected products show that the bro-
ker services have been made in accordance with the product
specifications, this generally provides assurance of company
compliance.
performance of a traceability test: for this, the auditor shall
select an appropriate traded product and test downstream/
upstream traceability
the on-site inspection and interviewing of the personnel
the final conclusions drawn from the audit
the closing meeting.
The company will assist and co-operate with the auditor during the
audit. As part of the audit, personnel from different levels of manage-
ment are interviewed. It is advisable that the companys senior manag-
ers are present at the opening and closing meetings so that any devia-
tions and non-conformities can be discussed.
The auditor(s) who conduct(s) the audit will assess all the requirements
of IFS Broker which are relevant to the companys structure and function.
IFS, October 2013

During the closing meeting, the auditor (or lead auditor in the case of an
audit team) shall present all findings and discuss deviations and non-
conformities which have been identified. As specified by ISO/IEC 17065
norm, the auditor may only issue a provisional assessment of compa-
nys status during the closing meeting.The certification body shall issue
a provisional audit report and outline an action plan to the company,
which shall be used as a basis for drawing up corrective actions for the
determined deviations and non-conformities.
The certification body is responsible for making the certification deci-

sion and the preparation of the formal audit report after the receipt of
the completed action plan. The issue of the certificate is dependent on
the audit results and on agreement on an appropriate action plan.
5.5 Evaluation of requirements
The auditor assesses the nature and significance of any deviation or

non-conformity. In order to determine whether compliance with a
requirement of IFS Broker has been met, the auditor has to evaluate
every requirement in the Standard.There are different levels to rank the
findings.
5.5.1 Scoring a requirement as a deviation
In IFS Broker, there are 4 scoring possibilities:
Scoring with:
A: Full compliance with the requirement specified in the Standard
B: Almost full compliance with the requirement specified in the Stand-
ard, but a small deviation was found
C: Only a small part of the requirement has been implemented
D: The requirement in the Standard has not been implemented
Points are awarded for each requirement according to the following

chart:
Chart N 1: Scoring
Result Explanation Points

A Full compliance 20 points
B (deviation) Almost full compliance 15 points
C (deviation) Small part of the requirement has been implemented 5 points
D (deviation) Requirement has not been implemented 20 points
IFS, October 2013

The auditor shall explain all scorings with B, C and D in the audit report.
In addition to this scoring, the auditor can decide to give the company a
KO or a Major non-conformity that will subtract points from the
total amount.These possibilities are explained within the next chapters.
5.5.2 Scoring a requirement as a non-conformity
In IFS, there are two (2) kinds of non-conformities which are Major and
KO. Both will lead to a subtraction of points from the total amount. If the
company gets at least one of these non-conformities, the certificate can-
not be awarded.
5.5.2.1 Major non-conformity
A Major non-conformity is defined as follows:

A Major non-conformity can be given to any requirement which is not
defined as KO requirement.
When there is a substantial failure to meet the requirements of the

Standard, which includes product safety and/or the legal requirements
of the destination countries. A Major non-conformity can also be given
when the identified non-conformity can lead to a serious health hazard.
A Major non-conformity will subtract 15 % of the possible total amount

of points.
Chart N 2: Evaluation of a Major non-conformity
Evaluation Scoring Result

Major 15 % of possible total amount No certificate awarding is
non-conformity is subtracted possible
See also section 5.8 for the general management of audit process in
case of Major non-conformity(ies).
5.5.2.2 KO (Knock Out)
In IFS, there are specific requirements which are designated as KO

requirements (KO Knock Out).
If during the audit the auditor establishes that these requirements are
not fulfilled by the company, this results in non-certification.
IFS, October 2013

In IFS Broker the following 8 requirements are defined as KO require-

ments:
1.2.3 Responsibility of the senior management
2.1.1 Risk Management/HACCP
4.2.2 Product specifications
4.6.1 Traceability system
5.1.1 Internal audits
5.2.2 Product analysis
5.5.2 Procedure for withdrawal and recall
5.7.2 Corrective actions
KO requirements shall be evaluated according to the following scoring

rules:
Chart N 3: Scoring for KO requirement
Result Explanation Awarded scores

C (deviation) Small part of the requirement No C scoring is possible
is implemented
KO (= D) The requirement is not 50 % of the possible total amount
implemented of points is subtracted => No
certificate awarding is possible
Important note
A C scoring is not possible for KO requirements. In this respect, the
auditor can only use A, B or D (= KO).
When a KO requirement has been scored as D, 50 % of the possible

total amount of points will be subtracted automatically meaning that
the company is not approved for IFS Broker certification.
A KO cannot be scored with N/A, except KO 5.2.2.
See also section 5.8 for the general management of audit report in case
of one or several KO requirements.
5.5.3 Scoring a requirement with N/A (not applicable)
When the auditor decides that a requirement is not applicable for a

company, the auditor has to use as scoring:
N/A: Not applicable and provide a short explanation in the audit report.
N/A scoring is possible for any requirements of the IFS Broker audit
check-list, except for KO requirements (exception for KO 5.2.2).
IFS, October 2013

N/A requirements shall not be included in the outline action plan, but
they shall be listed in a separate table in the audit report.
If there are a significant number of requirements which are deemed as

not applicable, using a total points score for the audit may be mislead-
ing; however, the scoring system for IFS Broker is based on a percent-
age of the total available score and it is this which is used to decide the
status of the site i.e. foundation or higher level.
5.6 Determination of the audit frequency
For all audited activities and for all certification levels, the audit fre-
quency for IFS Broker audits is 12 months, starting from the date of the
audit and not the date of issue the certificate. Further regulations are
described in 6.2 (certification cycle).
5.7 Audit report
Following each audit, a full written report shall be prepared in the agreed
format (see Part 4).
5.7.1 Structure of the audit report
The audit report shall provide transparency and confidence to the reader
and will be completed by the auditor.The audit report is subdivided into
different sections.
General information about the company with compulsory fields
(see Part 2, Annex 2)
General audit result with detailed description of the scope
General summary in a tabular format for all chapters.The result
of the audit will specify the level and percentage.
General summary of all chapters and comments about follow
up of corrective actions implemented from the previous audit
Observations on KO requirements and Major non-conformities
Summary of all established deviations and non-conformities
for each chapter (1 to 6)
Separate list (including explanations) of all requirements evalu-
ated with N/A (not applicable)
Detailed audit report with compulsory fields to be completed
by the auditors for some IFS Broker requirements (see Part 2,
Annex 2).
IFS, October 2013

All deviations (B, C, D) and KO requirements scored with a B, non-con-

formities (Major, KO requirement scored with a D) identified during the
audit, are presented in a separate action plan. Following the allocation
of a grade, the company has to produce a corrective action plan. In this
way, the reader of the report can see the non-conformities and devia-
tions, and also the corrective actions that the company is initiating.
5.7.2 The different steps for the audit report
5.7.2.1 Drawing up the pre-report of the audit and the outline of the
action plan
The auditor shall explain all non-conformities (KO requirements scored

with a D and Majors), all deviations (B, C, D) and KO requirements
scored with a B, and all requirements that are found N/A.
The auditor shall also describe/explain A scorings for some pre-deter-

mined requirements (see Part 2, Annex 2).
The action plan shall include all the requirements which are not evalu-
ated with A or N/A. The outline action plan shall conform to the auditX-
pressTM software (IFS audit report writer assistant) outline action plan. It
shall include the elements of the following chart.
The auditor shall complete all of Field A in chart N 4 explaining and

justifying the deviations and non-conformities found before sending
the company the outline action plan and the pre-report of the audit.
The certification body or the auditor shall send the company both the
pre-report of the audit and the outline action plan within two weeks of
the audit date.
IFS, October 2013

Chart N 4: Outline action plan
Number IFS requirement Evalua- Explanation Corrective Responsibility Release by

of the tion (by the action Date and status of the auditor
require- auditor) (by the implementation
ment company) (by the company)
Field A Field B Field C Field D
1.2.1 An organisation B
chart
1.2.2 Competences and C
responsibilities
1.2.3 KO The senior manage- KO/D
ment shall ensure
that employees are
aware
1.2.4 The company shall D
ensure that all
processes
1.2.5 The company shall Major
have a system in
place
2.1.1 KO The basis of the KO/B
companys product
safety control
system
5.7.2.2 Companys completion of the corrective action plan
The company shall enter proposed corrective actions (Field B of chart

N 4) for all deviations (B, C, D) and KO requirements scored with a B
and non-conformities (Major, KO requirements scored with a D) listed
by the auditor.
For all evaluated deviations with score C and D, as well as non-conform-

ities, Major or KO requirements scored with a B and/or a D, the com-
pany shall clearly state the responsibilities and implementation dead-
lines for corrective action (chart N 4, Field C).The company shall forward
the corrective action plan to the certification body within 2 weeks of
having received the pre-report of the audit and the action plan layout. If
this deadline is not respected, the company has to undergo a complete
initial or renewal audit.
An IFS certificate shall not be awarded unless the corrective actions for
requirements scored with a C or D, and KO requirements scored with B,
specify responsibilities and implementation dates in the action plan.
The final decision of awarding the IFS certificate is dependant both on

final scoring and on relevance of corrective action plan communicated
by the company to the certification body.
IFS, October 2013

The company shall always submit a written corrective action plan before
receiving the final report and the certificate. The intention of the correc-
tive action plan is for the company to strive for continuous improve-
ments.
5.7.2.3 Auditor validation of the action plan
The auditor or a representative of the certification body shall validate

the relevance of the corrective actions in the last column of the action
plan before preparing the final audit report (Field D of the chart N 4). If
the corrective actions are not valid or are inadequate, the certification
body shall return the action plan to the company for completion in due
time.
5.7.3 Further rules about the audit report
5.7.3.1 Link between two consecutive audit reports (initial and

renewal audits)
When the auditor scores a requirement with C or D, corrective actions

shall be implemented before the renewal audit.This means the certifica-
tion body shall read the audit report and the action plan of the previous
audit, even if the report was issued by another certification body.
If C and/or D scorings remain the same from one audit to the next, or if
scorings are getting worse, the auditor shall assess in accordance with
the IFS chapter related to Corrective actions (chapter 5.7 of the audit
check-list, Part 2). This link between two consecutive audits ensures a
continuous improvement process.
5.7.3.2 Translation of the audit report
As the IFS standards are used internationally, it is important that cus-

tomers understand the audit report; this is particularly important in rela-
tion to deviations and non-conformities identified by the auditor, as well
as corrective actions proposed from the audited company. To make use
of IFS internationally and to make it widely understandable, the follow-
ing explanations for deviations and non-conformities shall always be
translated into English in the action plan (chart N 5, Field A) and in the
audit report:
Requirements evaluated with a C or D
Major non-conformities
KO requirements scored with a B or a D
The audit scope (on the relevant page of the audit report)
Detailed activity (operating processes, if there are subcon-
tracted activities, etc.) of the company, which is described in
the company profile. More detailed explanations on topics to
be translated are defined in Part 2, Annex 2.
IFS, October 2013

The corrective actions related to these deviations and non-conformities

shall also be translated into English in the action plan (chart N 5,
Field B).
Chart N 5: Outline action plan for translation
Number IFS requirement Evalua- Explanation Corrective Responsibility Release by

of the tion (by the action Date and status of the auditor
require- auditor) (by the implementation
ment company) (by the company)
Field A Field B
1.2.1 An organisation B
chart
1.2.2 Competences and C
responsibilities
1.2.3 KO The senior manage- KO/D
ment shall ensure
that employees are
aware
1.2.4 The company shall D
ensure that all
processes
1.2.5 The company shall Major
have a system in
place
2.1.1 KO The basis of the KO/B
companys product
safety control
system
It is an obligation and the responsibility of the certification bodies to

translate these explanations and corrective actions.The translation shall
be made under each sentence of the original version and included in
the audit report, before uploading the final audit report to the audit por-
tal.
IFS, October 2013

5.8 Scoring and conditions for issuing audit report and

certificate
Chart N 6: Scoring and awarding of certificates
Audit result Status Action company Report form Certificate

At least 1 KO Not approved Actions and new Report gives No
scored with D initial audit to be status
agreed upon
> 1 Major Not approved Actions and new Report gives No
and/or < 75 % initial audit to be status
of the agreed upon
requirements
are fulfilled
Max 1 Major Not approved Send completed Report includ- Certificate at
and 75 % of unless further action plan ing action foundation
the require- actions taken within 2 weeks plan gives level, if the
ments are and validated of receiving the status Major non-
fulfilled after follow- preliminarily conformity is
up audit report. Follow-up finally solved
audit max. as controlled
6 months after during the
the audit date follow-up
audit
Total score is Approved at Send completed Report includ- Yes, certifi-
75 % and foundation action plan ing action cate at
< 95 % IFS Broker within 2 weeks plan gives foundation
level after of receiving the status level,
receipt of the preliminarily 12 months
action plan report. validity
95 % higher IFS action plan ing action cate at higher
Broker level within 2 weeks plan gives level,
after receipt of receiving the status 12 months
of the action preliminarily validity
plan report.
Note: the total score is calculated as following:
Total number of points = (total number of IFS requirements require-

ments scored with N/A) 20
Final score (in %) = number of points awarded/total number of points.
5.8.1 Specific management of the audit process (report, certificate,

uploading) in case one or several KOs has/have been scored
with D during the audit (see also Annex 3)
In case one or several KO is/are scored with D during the audit, the cur-
rent IFS certificate shall be suspended in the IFS audit portal by the
certification body as soon as possible and a maximum 2 working days
after the audit date.
IFS, October 2013

In the database, explanation about reasons for suspending the current

certificate shall be given in English language. Clear explanations about
the identified non-conformity(ies) shall be provided by giving the num-
ber of involved KO requirement(s).These explanations shall be detailed
and be the same as those described in the action plan.
Note: all users having access to the IFS audit portal and having men-
tioned the respective company in their favourites list will get an e-mail
notice from the IFS audit portal that the current certificate has been sus-
pended.
In each case, the audit shall be completed and all requirements shall be
evaluated in order to give the company a complete overview about its
situation.
Furthermore, it is recommended to complete the action plan for improve-

ment purposes.
The audit report where one or several KO have been scored with D shall
always be uploaded into the IFS audit portal (only for administrative
purpose, but will not be visible).
In these situations, a complete new audit shall be performed. The new

audit shall be scheduled no earlier than 6 weeks after the audit where a
KO was scored with D.
5.8.2 Specific management of the audit process (report, certificate,

uploading) in case one or several Major non-conformity(ies)
has/have been issued (see also Annex 3)
In case one or several Major non-conformity(ies) is/are issued during

the audit, the current IFS certificate shall be suspended in the IFS audit
portal by the certification body as soon as possible and a maximum
2 working days after the audit date.
In the database, explanation about reasons for suspending the current

certificate shall be given in English language. Clear explanations about
the identified non-conformity(ies) shall be provided by giving the num-
ber of involved requirement(s).These explanations shall be detailed and
be the same as those described in the action plan.
Note: all users having access to the IFS audit portal and having men-
tioned the respective company in their favourites list will get an e-mail
notice from the IFS audit portal that the current certificate has been sus-
pended.
In cases where more than one Major non-conformity has been identi-
fied, a complete new audit shall be performed. The new audit shall be
scheduled no earlier than 6 weeks after the audit where Major non-con-
formities were issued.
IFS, October 2013

The audit report where one or several Major non-conformity(ies)

has/have been identified shall always be uploaded into the IFS audit
portal after receiving the action plan (only for administrative purpose,
but will not be visible).
Specific situation in case of follow-up audit:

If a Major non-conformity has been identified with a total score of 75 %
or above and then resolved, and if the audit result is deemed positive:
The certification body shall mention on the updated audit
report:
in the date section: specify the date of the follow up audit
in addition to the date of audit when the Major non-conform-
ity was identified,
in the final result of audit section: specify that a follow up
audit has taken place and that the Major non-conformity has
been solved,
In the observations regarding KO non-conformities and
Majors section explain on which requirement the Major
non-conformity has been solved.
The company cannot be certified with higher level even if the
final total score is equal or more than 95 %.
The same valid date of the certificate remains in the certifica-
tion cycle as described in 6.2.
It shall be defined on the certificate the date of initial audit and
date of follow-up audit.
If it was during an initial audit, the longest certificate valid due
date is calculated using initial audit date, plus one year and
8 weeks, minus 1 day.
Example:
Initial audit date 1: 01. October, 2014
Date of issue of certificate: 26. November, 2014
Certificate valid until: 25. November, 2015
Renewal date (audit where Major non-
conformity has been issued) 2: 25. September, 2015
Follow up audit: 03. December, 2015
Latest date of validity of the certificate: 25. November, 2016.
The report (first of the audit with the estimated Major non-conformity,
then updated with results of follow up audit) shall be uploaded into the
IFS audit portal after performing the follow-up audit with the proviso
that the Major non-conformity is finally solved.
5.8.3 Specific management of the audit process in case the final

score is < 75 %
In these situations, the certification is failed and a complete new audit

shall be performed. The new audit shall be scheduled no earlier than
6 weeks after the audit where the final score was < 75 %.
IFS, October 2013

5.8.4 Specific management of the audit process in case of multi-

location companies with central management
Each site shall be audited separately in a period of maximum 12 months

after the central managing site and shall have its own audit report and
certificate.
All KO requirements shall be audited at all sites even if some of
them are partly managed at the central managing site.
In the audit report of each site, only the audit date of the respec-
tive site shall be mentioned; the audit date of managing site is
not additionally necessary.
In case that a Major non-conformity or a KO scored with D has
been issued during the audit of the central managing site, all
audited sites are also affected and the certificates of these sites
shall be suspended (according the procedure described above).
After a successful audit of the central managing site (or after
positive follow-up after a Major non-conformity was issued in
the central managing site), the certificates of the sites can be
reinstated. Depending upon which non-conformity has been
issued in the central managing site, a new audit of the sites
may also be necessary.
6 Awarding the certificate

A certificate shall be issued to one specific site.
Translation of the audit scope on the certificate: To make use of the IFS
Broker internationally and to make it widely understandable, the audit
scope on the IFS Broker certificate shall always be translated into Eng-
lish. It is an obligation and the responsibility of the certification bodies
to translate the audit scope.
Detailed minimum mandatory information to be published on the IFS

Broker certificate is determined in Part 4.
Note: the final audit score, in percentage, can also be published on the
certificate, if required by customer and/or audited company.
6.1 Deadlines for awarding certificate
The certification body is responsible for the decision to award or not to

award the IFS Broker certificate.The decision is made by person(s) other
than those who have carried out the audit.The certification shall be valid
effectively from the date of issue stated on the certificate itself and shall
end after 12 months. The date for the renewal audit shall be calculated
IFS, October 2013

from the date of the initial audit, not from the date of issue the certifi-
cate. If the audit is not performed in due time, the retailers or other
users will be informed via the audit portal.
The time between the date of the audit and the awarding of certificate is
determined as follows:
2 weeks to draw up the pre-report of the audit
2 weeks for the company to respond to the deviations and non-
conformities (i.e. draw up the action plan)
2 weeks for the auditor to check the proposed corrective actions,
for the certification procedure and upload of the audit report,
the action plan and the certificate to the audit portal.
In total: 6 weeks between the date of audit and uploading the audit
report to the audit portal and awarding the certificate:
Target time: 6 weeks,
Maximum time: 8 weeks.
6.2 Certification cycle
Even if the renewal audit due date changes every year and does not
completely correspond to the anniversary date, the certificate validity
date shall remain the same each year. The due date of the certificate is
determined as follows: initial audit date + 8 weeks.
This allows to avoid gaps between two (2) consecutive certificates and
to avoid that a company scheduling the audit earlier loses some months
of certificate validity.
Example:
Initial audit date: 01. October, 2014
Date of issue of certificate: 26. November, 2014
Certificate valid until: 25. November, 2015
Renewal audit date: 25. September, 2015
Certificate valid until: 25. November, 2016 (independently from
the renewal audit date).
IFS, October 2013

Chart N 7: Certification cycle
Oct. Nov. D J F M A M J J A Sept. O Nov. D J F M A M J J A S Oct. Nov. D J F M A M J J A S

2014 2015 2016
< 12 months > 12 months

IA: RA: RA:
01. 10. 2014 25. 09. 2015 05. 10. 2016
C: = 12 months C: = 12 months C:
25. 11. 2015 25. 11. 2016 25. 11. 2017
IA: Initial audit
RA: Renewal audit
C: Issue a certificate valid until
Note: the certificate shall always be edited on the basis of a certification

decision and after the several steps of certification decision according
to ISO/IEC 17065 norm.
Ideally, the renewal audit shall be performed within eight (8) weeks of
the date of expiry of certificate to have enough time for the several steps
of the certification process to be completed.
The renewal audit shall be scheduled at earliest eight (8) weeks before
and at latest two (2) weeks after the audit due date (due date is anniver-
sary date of the initial audit). If this is not the case, or if the several steps
of the certification process were not completed in time, the certificate
cannot be renewed with the due date but with the actual new date;
this will lead to a break in the certification.
In the example above, this means that the audit shall never be sched-
uled before 06. August and after 15. October.
The previous audit report remains a further eight (8) weeks (after audit
due date) on the audit portal, but if the renewal audit takes place later
than described above, the report will be automatically inactivated from
the IFS audit portal.
6.3 Information about conditions of withdrawal of

certificate
Withdrawal of certificate by the certification body is only permitted in
case of any information indicating that the product(s) may no longer
comply with the requirements of the certification system.
The only exception of this rule may be related to the non-payment of

the current audit by the certified company.
The contract between certification body and audited company shall be

harmonized with the certification cycle (see above chart N 7).
IFS, October 2013

7 Distribution and storage of the audit report

Audit reports shall remain the property of the company and shall not be
released, in whole or part, to a third party without the companys prior
consent (except where required by law).This consent for distribution of
the audit report must be in writing and can be granted by the company
vis--vis the certification body and/or vis--vis the relevant user. The
certification body shall keep a copy of the audit report and all support-
ing documentation. This documentation shall be stored safely and
securely for a period of five years.
Access conditions to information about audit reports are fully detailed
in Part 4.
8 Supplementary action
The decision on the level of supplementary actions required on the
basis of the certificate shall be made at the discretion of the individual
buying organisation.
9 Appeal and complaints procedure

The certification body shall have documented procedures for the con-
sideration and resolution of appeals against the results of an audit.
These procedures shall be independent of the individual auditor and
will be considered by senior management of the certification body.
Appeals will be finalised within 20 working days of receiving informa-
tion from the auditee.
The certification body shall have documented general procedures for
handling complaints received from the companies and/or other rele-
vant parties. An initial response will be given within ten (10) working
days of receiving the complaint. A letter confirming receipt of the com-
plaint will be issued within a maximum of five (5) working days. A full
written response will be given after the completion of a full and thor-
ough investigation into a complaint.
For the handling of complaints received by the IFS offices, the basis for
the complaint management is described in the IFS framework agree-
ment with certification bodies:
If the complaint relates to the quality of the content of IFS audits
or IFS audit reports, IFS offices require the certification body to
provide a statement on the cause and the measures introduced
to rectify the problem within 2 weeks.
If the complaint relates to administrative errors, e.g. in IFS audit
reports, IFS certificates or in the IFS database, IFS offices ask
the certification body to provide a statement and rectify the
problem within one (1) week. The statement shall be issued in
writing by e-mail or post.
10 Ownership and usage of the IFS Broker

Logo
The copyright of IFS Broker and the registered trademark is fully owned
by the IFS Management GmbH.The IFS Broker Logo can be downloaded
via the secured section of the IFS audit portal.
Furthermore, the below terms and conditions shall be checked by the

auditor during the audit and results of this check shall be described in
the company profile of the audit report as a mandatory field (see also
Annex 2, Part 2, for mandatory fields). In case the auditor identified that
the company doesnt fulfil those terms and conditions, IFS shall be
informed accordingly.
Terms and conditions for using the IFS Broker logo and
communication about the IFS Broker certification
Application
These terms and conditions apply for both IFS Broker and all IFS logos
in general.
Form, design and colour of the IFS Broker logo

When used, the IFS Broker logo must comply with the form and colour
of the scale drawing. If it is used in documents, black and white print is
also permitted.
The IFS Broker logo can be used in print, physical and electronic form,
and in films, providing the forms and formats are respected. The same
conditions apply to the use of the logo as a stamp.
Restriction of comment and interpretations

When an IFS Broker certified company, an IFS Broker supporting com-
pany or an IFS Broker certification body publishes documents bearing
the IFS logo, comment and interpretations referring to the IFS shall be
clearly identifiable as such.
Use of the IFS Broker logo in promotional material

An IFS Broker certified company, an IFS Broker supporting company
(e.g. sub-contractor) which accepts IFS certificates from their suppliers
or service providers, or an IFS certification body may use the IFS logo
for promotional reasons and publish information about IFS certification
provided that it is not visible on final product packaging which are avail-
able to the end-consumer.
Companies which provide products and/or services to IFS certified or

supporting companies, but which are not themselves IFS certified (e.g.
manufacturers of devices, clothing, cleaning materials or service pro-
viders which would like to promote that their products and/or services
help to fulfil the IFS requirements) must ask for express written permis-
sion to IFS Management GmbH to use the IFS logo.
IFS, October 2013

The IFS Broker logo and information about the certification may be used
in correspondence with relevant IFS users. Presentations mentioning
IFS on the internet are only permitted if they are in a direct link with
product safety (e.g. within information about the safety/quality man-
agement system).
The IFS Broker logo may be displayed on any kind of general communi-
cation (e.g. exhibitions for business contacts, brochures, generic arti-
cles about product safety and quality management in general, vehicles).
The IFS Broker Standard was developed by representatives of trading
companies, retailers and certification bodies in order to assure the prod-
uct safety and quality of their contractors.
It must be ensured that all information concerning certifications refers

clearly to IFS.The IFS logo may not be used in presentations having no
clear connection to IFS.
Further restriction on the use of the IFS Broker logo

The IFS Broker logo shall not be used in a way that could show intent
that the IFS owner is responsible for the certification decision. Further-
more, the same applies for opinions and interpretations which could be
deriven from it. In the event of suspension or withdrawal of the IFS Bro-
ker certification, the certified company has to immediately stop the
inclusion of the IFS logo on its documents or other associated material
and cease all communications regarding IFS. The audited company
must demonstrate that they have complied with these requirements.
Communication of the IFS Broker certification

All the above mentioned rules apply to any communication regarding
IFS Broker. This also means that using the wordmarks IFS, Interna-
tional Featured Standards, or IFS Broker or similar is not allowed
when communicating on finished products, which are available to the
end-consumer.
11 Review of the Standard

The Review Committee needs to demonstrate control of the quality and
content of the Standard and will annually review the Standard and the
Protocol to ensure that they are still in compliance with their require-
ments. The Review Committee shall be formed with all participants
involved in the audit process: the representatives of the retailers, repre-
sentatives of trading companies and of certification bodies. The objec-
tive of the Review Committee is to share experiences, discuss and
decide about the changes to the Standard, the requirements of the audit
report and training.
IFS, October 2013

12 IFS Integrity Program

The IFS Integrity Program launched in early 2010 includes different
measures to assure the quality of the IFS certification scheme, with a
focus on the review of audits conducted by the IFS certification bodies
and their auditors.
There are two cornerstones of this program:
12.1 Preventive quality assurance actions
Quality assurance activities monitor the entire IFS system. Surveillance

audits at the certification body offices and on-site supplier audits are
carried out on a regular basis in order to assess the IFS system. These
audits are undertaken regardless of whether or not a complaint has
been made. The sampling for these surveillance audits is based on a
random selection process and by use of objective criteria.These criteria
are both economic criteria (e.g. number of issued certificates) and qual-
ity criteria (e.g. the review and analyses of IFS certification processes
and corresponding reports).
A surveillance office audit of a certification body (CB) takes place at the

accredited certification bodys premises to verify the correct application
of the IFS requirements at the certification body offices and to promote
continuous improvement.
Additionally, surveillance on-site audits at certified companies may be

undertaken. In general, surveillance on-site audits are announced 48
hours before the audit date. In these audits the documentation reviewed
in the office audit of the certification body, or in the IFS database, is
compared with the real situation found at the company.
Witness audits can also be performed. In this case, Integrity auditors

assess an IFS auditor during a real IFS audit.
12.2 Quality assurance actions after complaint

notification
A detailed complaint management process analyzes all necessary infor-
mation. Retailers or any other interested parties have the right to for-
ward any possible non-conformity to IFS for investigation as part of the
Integrity Program.
The IFS Offices collect complaints concerning IFS audits, reports, cer-
tificates or other circumstances in which the integrity of the IFS brand is
in question. Retailers, certification bodies, employees of IFS-certified
companies or any person can use the complaint form on the IFS web-
site www.ifs-certification.com or can send an e-mail to complaintman-
[email protected] to inform IFS about a certain issue. In
IFS, October 2013

addition to any complaints received, IFS also analyses the IFS database
using analytical tools in order to identify any deficiencies. If IFS Quality
Assurance Management is informed of significant discrepancies
between the results of an IFS audit and a subsequent retailer audit, this
will be investigated within the complaint management process as
described below.
The IFS Offices will gather all necessary information in order to investi-
gate the cause of the complaint and to establish if there are deficiencies
by certified companies, accredited certification bodies or IFS-approved
auditors in meeting IFS requirements. Appropriate steps are taken to
fully investigate a complaint, which may include a request to a certifica-
tion body to carry out internal investigations and provide a statement
on the outcome of their investigations to IFS.
In the event that a complaint cannot be successfully resolved by the

investigation undertaken by the certification body, an on-site investiga-
tion audit will be undertaken at the certified company(s). In general,
investigation audits are announced 48 hours before the audit date, how-
ever in special cases unannounced audits are undertaken.
Witness audits can also be performed. In this case, Integrity auditors

assess an IFS auditor during an IFS audit.
Audits carried out as part of the Integrity Program are conducted by

auditors employed by IFS and completely independent of the auditees
and accredited certification bodies.
12.3 Sanctions
If, following a complaint or preventive quality assurance actions, the
cause of a deficiency has been found to be the fault of a certification
body and/or an auditor, IFS will forward all necessary information anon-
ymously to an independent Sanction Committee.The Sanction Commit-
tee, which is made up of a lawyer and participants from industry, retail-
ers and certification bodies, shall make a decision on whether a breach
exists and if so its severity.
Sanctions will be issued to the certification body and/or its auditors if

the Sanction Committee concludes that a breach has been committed.
The type of sanction depends on the number of breaches previously
committed by the auditor and/or the certification body as well as the
level of severity of such breaches. IFS Management informs the appro-
priate accreditation body, if a breach for a certification body and/or for
an auditor has been established.
All these procedures are laid down in the contract between IFS and
each certification body and all stakeholders of the IFS system are
informed of the process.The IFS Integrity Program strengthens the reli-
ability of the IFS scheme by checking the implementation of the IFS
Standard in practice.
IFS, October 2013

Chart N 8: Summary of IFS Integrity Program activities
Integrity Program
Complaint IFS quality management Preventive QA

management direct decision of Level 3 measures
breaches based on data-
Investigation base analyses, confirmed Surveillance
audits by chairman (lawyer) audits
On-site On-site
Witness CB office Witness CB office
supplier supplier
audit audit audit audit
audit audit
IFS quality
management
sufficient evidence
at hand/breach
Level 1 or Level 2
probable
Sanction committee
Chairman Participant Participant from Participant from CBs

lawyer from retailers the industry without right to vote
IFS, October 2013

ANNEX 1: Clarification for the scope application

of the different IFS Standards
IFS Food is a Standard for auditing food product suppliers/manufactur-

ers and only concerns food processing companies or companies that
pack loose food products. IFS Food shall be used when a product is
processed or when there is a hazard for product contamination dur-
ing the primary packing of products.
IFS Logistics is a Standard for auditing companies whose activities are

logistics oriented for food and non-food products, such as transport,
storage, distribution, loading/unloading, etc. It applies to all types of
activities: delivery by road, rail or ship; frozen/refrigerated products or
ambient stable products.
Clarifications/examples of scope application between IFS Food and IFS

Logistics:
IFS Logistics only concerns logistics activities where companies
have a physical contact with already primary packed products
(transport, packaging of pre-packed food products, storage and/
or distribution, transport and storage of pallets, bags in box). It
also applies for specific unpacked goods, such as meat car-
casses or bulk/tanker transport (glucose syrup, milk, grain, etc.).
For any kind of processing, meaning that the characteristics of
the products are modified, IFS Logistics is not applicable, except
for freezing/unfreezing processes, under specific conditions
(extra requirements to be audited).
When the food processing company has its own logistics and/or
transport department/activities (storage and distribution), it is
included in the IFS Food under the specific sub-chapter about
transport or storage.
Note: if the logistics operation owned by the food processing
company is situated in the same location as the company, and
if the company or the customer wishes to get this operation IFS
Logistics certified, an IFS Logistics audit can additionally be
performed.
In this case, the following requirements shall be fulfilled:
the logistics operation is only used for prepacked products,
in case of two (2) certificates (Food and Logistics), the respec-
tive scopes of each audit and certificate shall be clearly
defined,
the requirements of IFS Food concerning transport and stor-
age shall be anyway evaluated during the IFS Food audit,
an IFS Food audit of the food processing company shall be
performed; IFS Logistics is an additional audit,
all relevant documents shall be located at the platform.
IFS, October 2013

If logistics and/or transport activities are outsourced by the pro-

cessing company, the requirements specified in the appropri-
ate chapter of IFS Food about storage and transport shall be
clearly defined in the respective contract, or IFS Logistics
applies.
IFS Broker is a Standard for auditing persons and/or companies who

may or may not own the products but typically who do not take physical
possession of the products (e.g. which do not have warehouses, pack-
ing stations or truck fleet, but are legal entities with mailboxes, offices,
etc.).
The Standard applies to food and household and personal care/prod-

ucts as well as to packaging materials.
IFS Broker only covers broker services, but if a (food or HPC or packag-
ing) processing company also has broker services and would like to
certify both activities, a combined audit, respectively IFS Food or IFS
HPC or IFS PAC secure and IFS Broker shall be performed.
IFS Cash & Carry/Wholesale is the Standard which covers all handling
activities of loose and packed products in Cash & Carry markets or
wholesale companies.
IFS HPC is a Standard for auditing companies that process household

and personal care products, or companies that pack loose household
and personal care products. IFS HPC can only be used when a product
is processed or when there is a hazard for product contamination dur-
ing the primary packing.
IFS PACsecure is a Standard for auditing food and non-food packaging

material manufacturers and only concerns packaging processing and/or
converting companies.
IFS, October 2013

Matrix for the determination of the right IFS Standard
N Main activity of the company International Featured Standards

IFS IFS IFS IFS IFS IFS
Food HPC Log. 2 Broker C & C/ PAC
W. secure
1 Food processing
(when products are processed or as soon as there X
is a hazard for product contamination)
2 HPC processing
(when products are processed or as soon as there X
is a hazard for product contamination)
3 Food, Non-Food, HPC logistics activities
Logistics activities and specific processing
activities, only as services, no broker services
(when companies have a physical contact with
already primary packed products or only for X
specific unpacked goods, such as meat carcasses
or bulk/tanker transport (glucose syrup, milk,
grain, etc.) or only for freezing/unfreezing as
services)
4 Food, HPC, packaging trading without product
contact
(when no physical possession of products, only X
purchase sale from an office, no logistics
activities)
5 Cash & Carry/Wholesale
(when distribution of products, small amount of
X
processing activities can be included, under
specific requirements)
6 Packaging material processing
(when (non) food packaging products are X
processed/converted)
Combined certification
7 Food or HPC or packaging trading and Food or
HPC or packaging processing
X X X X
Combined audit for broker services AND process-
ing activities
8 Food/HPC/packaging trading and Food/HPC/
packaging logistics
X X
Combined audit for broker services AND logistics
activities, with a specific combined check-list
IFS, October 2013

ANNEX 2: Certification process

1. Decision by the company to get certified against
the IFS Standard
2. Reading of the respective copy of IFS Standard
3. Evaluation of the current status by the company
4. Selection by the company of the IFS certification body Together with

(accredited and approved). certification body:
Quotation, decision and signature of contract Determination of
the audit date
Voluntary: Pre-Audit
Determination of
5. Audit planning and preparation audit times
Realisation of the audit on-site at the determined date, Definition of the
by an auditor competent in the relevant scopes audit scope
Opening meeting Evaluation of the documentation

Site assessment and interviews of employees Creation of the audit conclusions
Determination of 6. Closing meeting Determination of

1 Major and particu- Information about the determined non-conformities Majors, KO Audit
lar circumstances not approved
Not approved before
7. Preparation of a preliminary audit report and
further actions Suspension
preparation of action plan by the auditor (2 weeks)
of the
current
Suspension 8. Completion of the action plan and determination certificate
of the of corrective actions by the audited company (2 weeks)
current
certificate Action plan and
9. Return of the fulfilled action plan preliminary audit
to the certification body/auditor (2 weeks) report sent to
Action plan and
audited company
preliminary audit
report sent to 10. Proofreading of the completed action plan by the
audited company certification body/auditor
Voluntary comple-
Checking the complete audit report and action plan
tion of the action
(with mandatory review) by the certification body
plan and return to
Corrective actions of
the certification body
the non-conformities
which have led to 11. Certification decision, determination
the Major within of the certificate validity by the certification body
Finalisation of the
6 months
action plan and
12. Awarding of certificate and sending of the final report report upload into
to the audited company the IFS Audit portal
Validation of the
No certificate
corrective actions
by the certification 13. Uploading of the audit datas into the IFS Audit portal
body (audit details, report, action plan and certificate)
by the certification body
14. Three months before the audit expires, a reminder

will be sent to the company by the IFS Audit portal for
scheduling a new audit with the certification body.
The audit shall be scheduled no later than the renewal
audit date scheduled in the certificate.
IFS, October 2013

ANNEX 3: Flow chart for management of

KO scored with D and Major non-
conformities
IFS Broker audit
Audit
result
1 Major and 75 % of the require- > 1 Major and/or < 75 % or

ments are fulfilled =>15 % of the total More than one Major or
possible amount is subtracted One or several KOs scored with D
Not approved unless further actions Not approved

are taken and validated after follow-
up audit
Suspension of the current certificate,
max. two (2) working days after audit
Suspension of the current certificate, date
max. two (2) working days after audit Inserting the explanations in English
date about non-conformity(ies) in IFS portal
Inserting the explanations in English
about non conformity in IFS portal
Send preliminary report and action
plan template to the audited company
Send preliminary report and action
plan template to the audited company
Recommended: completion of the
action plan by the audited company
Mandatory: completion of the action and return to the certification body
plan by the audited company and within two (2) weeks
return to the certification body within
two (2) weeks
Uploading report in IFS portal
(not visible)
Uploading report in IFS portal
(not visible)
Time
period to the
Time
next audit
period to the
next audit
Full new audit, scheduled not earlier
than six (6) weeks after the audit
Initial audit, if > 6 months Follow-up audit, if < 6 months
where non-conformity(ies) was/were
between audit where Major between audit where Major
identified
was issued and next audit was issued and next audit
Positive audit
Positive audit result
result
Uploading final IFS report in portal

Uploading final IFS report in portal (visible): (visible)
In case of follow up audit:
Define in the date section date of initial audit and date of
follow up audit
Define in the final result of audit section that a follow audit
has taken place and that the Major has been solved
In the observations regarding KO and Majors, explain on
which requirement Major has been solved
The company can not be certified with higher level, even if the
final score is 95 %
Date of end of validity of certificate based on date of initial audit
IFS, October 2013

ANNEX 4: Product scopes for traded goods,

which shall be specified in the report
and certificate
Table 1: Product scopes according to IFS Food version 6
IFS Food version 6

Product scopes
1. Red and white meat, poultry and meat products
2. Fish and fish products
3. Egg and egg products
4. Dairy products
5. Fruit and vegetables
6. Grain products, cereals, industrial bakery and pastry, confectionary, snacks
7. Combined products
8. Beverages
9. Oils and fats
10. Dry goods, other ingredients and supplements
11. Pet food
Table 2: Product scopes according to IFS HPC version 1
IFS HPC version 1 Explanation

Product Scopes
1. Pc: Includes all the products described in the Cosmetic legislation
Cosmetic = (e.g. shampoo, toothpaste, lubrication strip of shavers,
Personal care washable temporary tattoos, cosmetic wipes, make up for
products dolls or children, skin patches and substances applied with
Skin contact skin-patches, etc.)
2. Hcp: Cleaning and polishing products, as well as impregnated
Household products intended for household and car activities (e.g.
chemical detergents, all products intended for cleaning activities, liquid
products or wipes, window cleaners, etc.). It also includes specific
cleaning products e.g. products for swimming pools.
Products and materials that are intended to improve the air
odor (e.g. air freshener sprays or aerosols, candles, etc.)
Insecticide products.
3. Hp: Materials and articles described in the Regulation (EC) No
Housekeeping 1935/2004, which are intended to come into contact with food
properties (e.g. plastic and carton cups/forks/plates, aluminum foils,
Food contact products for daily use, etc.)
Other kinds of materials and articles (e.g. sponges, dustbin
plastic bags, etc.)
4. Ph: Products or materials that are intended for human body care,
Personal except cosmetic products (e.g. hair brushes, shavers, tissues,
hygiene some medical devices class 1, diapers, feminine hygiene,
Skin contact wigs, artificial lashes, artificial nails, jewelry, etc.)
Product or materials that are intended to come into contact
with the inside of the mouth (e.g. toothbrush, dental floss,
dental wood/plastic sticks, etc.)
IFS, October 2013

Table 3: Product scopes according to IFS PACsecure version 1
1. Flexible packaging
2. Rigid plastic
3. Paper
4. Metal
5. Glass
6. Other natural materials
IFS, October 2013

Part 2: IFS Broker 2 requirements
1 Senior Management Responsibility
1.1 Corporate policy/Corporate principles
1.1.1 The senior management shall draw up and implement a cor-

porate policy.This shall consider as a minimum:
customer focus
environmental responsibility
sustainability
ethics and personnel responsibility
product requirements (includes: product safety, quality,
legality, process and specification).
The corporate policy shall be communicated to all employ-
ees.
1.1.2 All relevant information related to product safety and quality

shall be communicated effectively and in a timely manner to
the relevant personnel.
1.2 Corporate structure
1.2.1 An organisation chart shall be available showing the struc-

ture of the company.
1.2.2 Competences and responsibilities, including deputation of

responsibility shall be clearly laid down.
1.2.3 KO n 1: The senior management shall ensure that employ-

ees are aware of their responsibilities related to product
safety and quality and that mechanisms are in place to mon-
itor the effectiveness of their operation. Such mechanisms
shall be clearly identified and documented.
1.2.4 The company shall ensure that all processes (documented

and undocumented) are known by the relevant personnel
and are applied consistently.
IFS, October 2013

1.2.5 The company shall have a system in place, to ensure that it

is kept informed of all relevant legislation on traded prod-
ucts safety and quality issues, scientific and technical devel-
opments and industry codes of practice.
1.2.6 The company shall inform its customers, as soon as possi-

ble, of any issue related to product specification, in particular
of all non-conformity(ies) identified by competent authori-
ties related to products which could have, has or has had a
defined impact on safety and/or legality of respective prod-
ucts. This could include, but are not limited to cautionary
issues.
1.3 Management review
1.3.1 Senior management shall ensure that the quality and prod-
uct safety management systems are reviewed at least annu-
ally or more frequently if changes occur. Such reviews shall
contain, at least, results of audits, customer feedback, pro-
cess compliance and product conformity, status of preven-
tive and corrective actions, follow up actions from previous
management reviews, changes that could affect the product
safety and quality management systems and recommenda-
tions for improvement.
1.3.2 This review shall include the evaluation of measures for the
control of the quality and product safety management sys-
tem and for the continuous improvement process.
2 Quality and product safety Management

System
2.1 Risk Management/HACCP
2.1.1 KO n 2: The basis of the companys product safety control

system shall be a fully implemented, systematic and com-
prehensive risk management system. For food, the company
subject to the IFS Broker audit shall ensure that the suppli-
ers food safety control system is a fully implemented, sys-
tematic and comprehensive HACCP system, based upon
Codex Alimentarius principles. For all products, it shall take
into account any legal requirements of the production and
destination countries.
IFS, October 2013

2.1.2 There shall be a risk assessment process in place related to

specific location(s) and shall include:
a. A flow diagram encompassing all relevant levels of the
broker services
b. Risk description
c. Measures to control the identified risk
d. The steps referred to under points a)c) shall be docu-
mented.
2.1.3 The risk assessment shall be regularly reviewed, at least

annually, and/or when any modification is made to the ser-
vices; if necessary the risk assessment shall be revised/
updated. The risk assessment shall also consider issues in
relation to the presence of, risk of presence of GMO and
allergens.
2.1.4 The risk assessment shall be carried out by person(s) with

adequate knowledge of the services and products involved.
If this knowledge is inadequate, the company shall take
appropriate steps to ensure the risk assessment is under-
taken by competent person(s).
2.2 Documentation requirements
2.2.1 The system for product safety and quality management shall
be documented and shall be retained in one location (prod-
uct safety and quality manual or electronic documented sys-
tem).
2.2.2 A documented procedure shall exist for the control of docu-

ments and their amendments.
2.2.3 All documents shall be clearly legible, unambiguous and

comprehensive. They shall be available to relevant person-
nel at all times.
2.2.4 All documents which are necessary for compliance with the
product requirements shall be available in their latest ver-
sion.
2.3 Record keeping
2.3.1 All relevant records, necessary for the product requirements

shall be complete, detailed and maintained and shall be
available on request.
IFS, October 2013

2.3.2 Records shall be legible and genuine. They shall be main-

tained in a way that subsequent revision or amendment is
prohibited. If records are documented electronically, a sys-
tem shall be in place to ensure only authorized personnel
have access to produce or amend these records (e.g. by the
use of a password).
2.3.3 All records shall be kept in accordance with legal require-

ments. Where customer requirements are in place, these
shall be met, or if no such requirements exist, for a minimum
of one year after the specified shelf life. For products which
have no shelf life, the duration of record keeping shall be
justified and this justification shall be documented.
2.3.4 Records shall be securely stored and easily accessible.
3 Resource Management
3.1 All personnel performing work that affects product safety,
legality and quality shall have the required competence by
education, work experience and/or training, commensurate
with their role, based on risk assessment.
3.2 The company shall implement documented training pro-

grams with respect to the product requirements and the
training needs of the employees. The company shall have in
place a training programme matrix in relation to job descrip-
tion and training requirements.
4 Planning and Services Process
4.1 Contract agreement
4.1.1 The requirements which are defined between the contract

partners shall be established, reviewed and agreed upon
concerning their acceptability before a Supply Agreement is
concluded. All clauses related to quality and product safety
shall be communicated to and understood by each relevant
department.
4.1.2 Changes of existing contractual agreements shall be docu-

mented and communicated between the contract partners.
4.1.3 Specific quality and safety requirements of customers shall

be communicated to and understood by the supplier of the
company.
IFS, October 2013

4.2 Specifications
4.2.1 Specifications shall be available and in place for all products.

They shall be up to date, unambiguous and in compliance
with legal requirements of the destination country(ies) and
also with customer requirements.
4.2.2 KO n 3: The customer specification shall be complied with.
4.2.3 Where required by customers, product specifications shall

be formally agreed.
4.2.4 There shall be a procedure for the creation, the modification

and approval of specifications for all products and parts of
the services, which shall include the preliminary acceptance
of the customer, if specifications have been agreed with cus-
tomers.
4.3 Product development/Product modification/

Modification of production processes
4.3.1 A procedure for product development shall be in place,
which takes into account the risk assessment principles for
all products (and HACCP system for food products).The pro-
cedure shall ensure that all existing and new products are
designed to meet legal and customer requirements.This pro-
cedure shall also take into account patents, if applicable.
4.3.2 Product formulation, manufacturing processes, process

parameters and the fulfilment of product requirements shall
be established and shall have been ensured by factory trials
and/or product testing.
4.3.3 Where relevant, shelf life tests or adequate processes shall

be carried out and consideration given to product formula-
tion, packaging, manufacturing and declared conditions to
establish minimum durability of the product.
4.3.4 In relation to food product development, the company shall

ensure organoleptic assessments are undertaken and results
of these assessments are reviewed and acted upon.
4.3.5 A process shall be in place to ensure that labelling of all

existing and new products complies with current legislation
of destination country and customer requirements.
4.3.6 Recommendations for preparation and/or use of the prod-

ucts shall be established. Where appropriate, recommenda-
tions for use shall relate to consumer satisfaction and con-
sumer safety. Where specified, customer requirements shall
be included.
IFS, October 2013

4.3.7 The progress and results of product development shall be

properly recorded.
4.4 Purchasing
4.4.1 The company shall control purchasing processes to ensure

that all sourced materials and services, which have an impact
on product safety and quality, conform to requirements.
4.4.2 There shall be a procedure for approval and monitoring of

suppliers.
4.4.3 The approval and monitoring procedure shall contain clear

assessment criteria such as: audits, certificates of analysis,
supplier reliability and complaints, as well as required per-
formance standards based on risk assessment. If an IFS
standard exists for the product category (IFS Food, IFS HPC,
IFS PACsecure), the supplier of the (food, HPC or packaging)
product who works for the company shall be certified accord-
ing to IFS, unless the customer has expressively accepted
other conditions.
4.4.4 The company shall have a (internal or external) risk based

system in place, to monitor the sourcing areas of purchased
products.
4.4.5 An assessment of suppliers shall be made regularly to iden-

tify and control risks. There shall be a record of all reviews
and actions taken as a consequence of the assessment.
4.4.6 The purchased products shall be checked in accordance with

the existing specifications and, risk based, with their authen-
ticity. The schedule of these checks shall, as a minimum,
take into account the following criteria: product require-
ments and supplier status (according to its assessment).
4.4.7 In case of private labels, a supplier approval system in

accordance with customer requirements shall exist for sup-
pliers of products.
4.5 Product packaging
4.5.1 The company shall ensure that detailed specifications exist

for all packaging materials and that they comply with the
current legislation of the destination country(ies) of the prod-
uct.
IFS, October 2013

4.5.2 Where packaging material could compromise product safety,

declaration of conformity shall be provided by suppliers con-
firming compliance to legislative requirements. In the event
that no specific legal requirements are applicable, evidence
shall be available to demonstrate that packaging material is
suitable for use. This applies for packaging material which
could have an adverse effect on raw materials/components,
semi-processed and finished products.
4.5.3 Where product packaging change is required by the cus-

tomer or legislation, the company shall ensure the packag-
ing of the product is controlled by the supplier and that prod-
uct meets legislative and/or customer requirements.The use
of correct packaging shall be regularly checked and checks
shall be documented by the supplier. The company shall
ensure these checks are undertaken.
4.5.4 Where product labelling change is required by the customer

or legislation, the company shall ensure the labelling of the
product is amended by the supplier to meet this change.
Labelling information shall be legible, indelible and shall
comply with agreed customer product specifications (includ-
ing e.g. shelf life). Labelling shall be checked regularly and
checks shall be documented.
4.6 Traceability (including GMOs and allergens)
4.6.1 KO n 4: A traceability system shall be in place which ena-

bles the full identification of products and the labelling of
the products shall be done in a way to allow full traceability.
The traceability system, included records, shall ensure full
traceability from the supplier (defined to batch quantity)
until the delivery to the customer.
4.6.2 The traceability system shall be tested on a periodic basis

at least annually and each time traceability system changes.
The test shall verify upstream and downstream traceability
(from delivered products to raw materials/components, and
vice versa), including quantity checking. Test results shall be
recorded.
4.6.3 If required by the customer, the company shall ensure that

the supplier has identified samples representative of the
manufacturing lot, has stored them appropriately and has
kept these until their expiry date or, if required, for a longer
period.
The company shall obtain and retain a list of all manufac-
tured lots covered by the broker services.
IFS, October 2013

4.7 Logistics activities
4.7.1 Where a company contracts a third-party transport and/or

storage service provider, all relevant requirements to ensure
product safety and quality shall be clearly defined in the
respective contract or the service provider shall be subject to
IFS Logistics requirements.
4.7.2 If the company has its own storage area and/or own trans-
portation services and would like to include them into the
scope of the IFS certification, then these processes shall be
certified according to IFS Logistics (combined audit with IFS
Logistics check list), unless the customer has accepted other
conditions.
5 Measurements, Analysis, Improvements
5.1 Internal audits
5.1.1 KO n 5: Effective internal audits shall be conducted accord-

ing to a defined agreed audit program and shall cover at
least all requirements of the IFS Standard. Scope and fre-
quency of internal audits shall be determined by risk assess-
ment.
5.1.2 Internal audits of activities which are critical to product
safety, specifications and own services shall be carried out at
least once a year.
5.1.3 The auditors shall be competent and independent from the
audited department.
5.1.4 Audit results shall be communicated to the senior manage-
ment and to responsible persons of concerned department.
Necessary corrective actions and a schedule for implemen-
tation shall be determined and documented and communi-
cated to every relevant person.
5.1.5 It shall be documented how and when the corrective actions
resulting from the internal audits shall be verified. Records
of verification actions shall be available.
5.2 Product analysis

5.2.1 There shall be product analysis/testing procedures ensuring
that all specified product requirements are met, including
legal requirements and specifications. Microbiological,
physical and chemical analysis required for that purpose
shall be performed internally and/or subcontracted.
IFS, October 2013

5.2.2 KO n 6: Where special analysis are demanded by the cus-

tomer, these shall be defined in a testing plan and performed
according to the defined requirements. Test results shall be
available at the company site.
5.2.3 Analyses, which are relevant for product safety, shall prefer-
ably be performed by laboratories having appropriate
accredited programs/methods (ISO 17025). If the analyses
are performed by a factory internal or a laboratory not hav-
ing appropriate accredited programs/methods, the results
shall be verified on a regular basis by laboratories accredited
on these programs/methods (ISO 17025).
5.2.4 A product sampling program, based on risk assessment,
shall be implemented, which covers the broker services, the
production process of the suppliers, incl. raw materials/
components, semi-processed products as well as packaging
materials.The test results shall be documented.
5.2.5 Results of analysis shall be evaluated promptly. In case of
any unsatisfactory results, the company shall assess the sig-
nificance of these results, shall inform the customer accord-
ingly and appropriate corrective measures shall always be
implemented. The analytical results shall be reviewed regu-
larly in order to identify trends. In the event that trend analy-
sis indicates potential issues which may occur, the company
shall take corrective actions.
5.2.6 Based on any internal or external information on product
risks which may have an impact on product safety and/or
quality (incl. adulteration and fraud), the company shall
update its control plan and/or take any appropriate measure
to control impact on finished products.
5.3 Product quarantine and product release
5.3.1 As part of the companys incident management procedure

(crisis management system), there shall be an assurance
that the supplier has systems in place which identify and
control non conforming products and that robust quarantine
(blocking/hold) procedures are in place in the event that non
conforming product is identified. The company shall ensure
that only products and materials conforming to product
requirements are delivered to the customer.
5.4 Management of complaints from authorities and

customers
5.4.1 A system shall be in place for the management of product
complaints.
IFS, October 2013

5.4.2 All complaints shall be assessed by competent staff. Where

it is justified, appropriate actions shall be taken as soon as
possible.
5.4.3 Complaints shall be analysed with a view to implementing

preventive actions which avoid the recurrence of the non-
conformity.
5.4.4 The results of complaint data analysis shall be made known

to the relevant responsible persons and to the senior man-
agement.
5.5 Management of incidents, product withdrawal,

product recall
5.5.1 A documented procedure shall be defined for management
of incidents and of potential emergency situations that
impact product safety, legality and quality. This procedure
shall be implemented and maintained. This includes as a
minimum: the nomination and training of a crisis team, an
alert contact list, sources of legal advice (if necessary), con-
tacts availability, customer information, and a communica-
tion plan, including information to consumers.
5.5.2 KO n 7: There shall be an effective procedure for the with-

drawal and recall of all products, which ensures that involved
customers are immediately informed. This procedure shall
include a clear assignment of responsibilities.
5.5.3 Updated emergency contact details (such as names and

phone numbers of suppliers, customers and competent
authorities) shall be available. A person of the company,
who has the authority to initiate the incident management
process, shall be permanently available.
5.5.4 The feasibility, effectiveness and timeliness of implementa-

tion of the withdrawal procedure shall be subject to regular
internal testing, carried out at least once a year.This test shall
be carried out in a manner to assess the effectiveness of
implementation and operation of the procedure.
5.6 Management of non-conformities and non

conforming products
5.6.1 A procedure shall exist for the management of all non-con-
forming products.
IFS, October 2013

5.6.2 The procedure for the management of non-conforming prod-

ucts shall include, as a minimum:
isolation/quarantine procedures
hazard analysis and assessment of associated risks
identification (e.g. labelling)
decision about the further use (e.g. release, rework/post
treatment, blocking, quarantine, rejection/disposal)
information about process chain
clearly identified staff responsibilities.
5.6.3 The rules of the procedure for the management of non-con-

forming products shall be understood by all relevant employ-
ees.
5.6.4 Where non-conformities are identified, the company shall

ensure that immediate corrections shall be taken at the
responsible manufacturing site and that product require-
ments are complied with.
5.6.5 Out of specification, final packaged products or packaging

materials shall not be placed in the market under the label
concerned. Exceptions shall be agreed in writing with the
contract partners.
5.7 Corrective actions
5.7.1 A procedure shall be in place for the recording and analysis

of the non-conformities with the objective to avoid recur-
rences by preventive actions and/or corrective actions.
5.7.2 KO n 8: Corrective actions shall be clearly formulated, doc-

umented and undertaken, as soon as possible to avoid fur-
ther occurrence of non-conformity. The responsibilities and
the timescales for corrective action shall be clearly defined.
The documentation shall be securely stored, and easily
accessible.
5.7.3 The performance of the implemented corrective actions shall

be documented and the effectiveness shall be checked.
IFS, October 2013

6 Food/product defense assessment

6.1 The company shall ensure that suppliers responsibilities for
product defense are clearly defined.
6.2 The company shall ensure that suppliers have performed

and documented a product defense hazard analysis and
assessment of associated risks. Based on this assessment,
and based on the legal requirements, areas critical to secu-
rity shall be identified.
IFS, October 2013

ANNEX 1: Glossary/Definitions list

Definitions which are not mentioned within the glossary can be found
in relevant regulations and directives. In relation to the terms used
within this document, the following definitions apply and shall be
respected.
Allergen (EU) Food causing an adverse reaction that is mediated by an

immunological response. Defined allergens are:
Cereals containing gluten (i.e. wheat, rye, barley, oats, spelt,
kamut or their hybridised strains) and products thereof
Crustaceans and products thereof
Eggs and products thereof
Fish and products thereof
Peanuts and products thereof
Soybeans and products thereof
Milk and products thereof (including lactose)
Nuts i.e. Almond (Amygdalus communis L.), Hazelnut
(Corylus avellana), Walnut (Juglans regia), Cashew (Anacar-
dium occidentale), Pecan nut (Carya illinoiesis (Wangenh.) K.
Koch), Brazil nut (Bertholletia excelsa), Pistachio nut (Pista-
cia vera), Macadamia nut and Queensland nut (Macadamia
ternifolia) and products thereof
Celery and products thereof
Lupin and products thereof
Molluscs and products thereof
Mustard and products thereof
Sesame seeds and products thereof
Sulphur dioxide and sulphites at concentrations of more
than 10 mg/kg or 10 mg/litre expressed as SO2.
Commission Directive 2007/68 EC of 27 November 2007
amending Annex III a to Directive 2000/13/EC of the European
Parliament and of the Council as regards certain food ingredi-
ents.
Allergen (US) There are 8 major allergens recognized in the United States
according to the 2009 U.S. Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) Model Food Code, Definitions section, page 12.
(1) Major food allergen means:
(a) Milk, egg, fish (such as bass, flounder, cod, and including
crustacean shellfish such as crab, lobster, or shrimp),
tree nuts (such as almonds, pecans, or walnuts), wheat,
peanuts, and soybeans
(b) A Food ingredient that contains protein derived from a
food, as specified in Subparagraph (1)(a) of this defini-
tion.
(2) Major food allergen does not inlcude:
a) Any highly refined oil derived from a food specified in
Subparagraph (1)(a) of this definition and any ingredient
derived from such highly refined oil; or
b) Any ingredient that is exampt under the petition or
notification process specified in the Food Allergen
Labeling and Consumer Protection Act of 2004 (Public
Law 108-282).
Assessor Person assigned by an accreditation body to perform, alone or
(for accreditation as part of an assessment team, an assessment of a Conformity
bodies) Assessment Body.
Audit Systematic, independent and documented process for obtain-
ing audit evidence and evaluating it objectively to determine
the extent to which the audit criteria are fulfilled.
IFS, October 2013

Authenticity Condition of being authentic, genuine. Covers legality, safety

and quality aspects.
Broker IFS Broker applies to persons and/or companies who may or
may not own the products but typically who do not take
physical possession of the products (e.g. which do not have
warehouses, packing stations or truck fleet, but are legal
entities with mailboxes, offices, etc.).
This includes, typically, services of:
Broker/Middleman: person or company who acts as an agent
for others, as in negotiating contracts, purchases or sales in
return for a fee or commission.
Sales Agent: person or company who is authorized or
appointed by a manufacturer to sell or distribute his products
in a given territory but who is in business for himself, takes
title of the goods and does not act as agent for a principal.
Trader/Dealer: person or company whose business is buying
and selling or bartering.
Importer: person or company who brings goods into a place
or country from another country with the purpose of selling.
Calibration Set of operations that establish, under specified conditions, the
relationship between values of quantities indicated by a
measuring instrument or measuring system, or values repre-
sented by a material measure or a reference material and the
corresponding values realised by standards.
CCP Critical A step at which control can be applied and is essential to
Control Point prevent or eliminate a product safety hazard or reduce it to an
acceptable level.
Company General organisation (whereas the site is a unit of the company).
In the Standard, the company is the trade agency, the broker or
the importer.
Contamination Introduction or occurrence of a contaminant in product or
product environment. Contamination does include: physical,
chemical, biological contamination. Contamination can also
mean correlation of packages among themselves.
Correction Action to eliminate a detected non-conformity or deviation.
Corrective action Action to eliminate the cause of a detected non-conformity,
deviation or other undesirable situation.
CP Control Identified by the hazard analysis as essential in order to control
point the likelihood of introducing or proliferation of product safety
hazard in the product and/or the environment.
A CP can be considered as an OPRP (Operational Prerequisite
Program), as defined in ISO 22000.
Customer A customer is a business company or person to whom broker
services are sold.
Deviation Non-compliance with a requirement but there is no impact on
product safety related to products and processes. In the IFS,
deviations are requirements scored with a B, C or D and KO
requirements scored with a B.
End-consumer The ultimate consumer of a product who will not use the
product as part of any business operation or activity.
Flow diagram A systematic representation of the sequence of steps or
operations used in the broker services.
IFS, October 2013

Food defense Food defense is the collective term used by the US Food and
Drug Administration (FDA), United States Department of
Agriculture (USDA), Department of Homeland Security (DHS),
etc. to encompass activities associated with protecting the
nations food supply from deliberate or intentional acts of
contamination or tampering.This term encompasses other simi-
lar verbiage (i.e., bioterrorism (BT), counter-terrorism (CT), etc.),
The USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service define food defense
as the protection of food products from intentional adulteration
by biological, chemical, physical or radiological agents.
Formula Exhaustive description of quantity and quality of raw materials
to be used to process the products, as required in customer
specifications.
Formula can also include technological parameters and specific
know-how on the process.
GMO An organism, with the exception of human beings, in which the
genetic material has been modified otherwise than natural
multiplication or natural recombination.
HACCP system A system which identifies evaluates and controls hazards which
are significant for product safety.
Hazard A biological, chemical or physical agent in, or condition of, food
with the potential to cause an adverse health effect.
Hazard analysis The process of collecting and evaluating information on
hazards and conditions leading to their presence to decide
which are significant for product safety and therefore should be
addressed in risk management/HACCP plan.
Head office Assessment of the Conformity Assessment Body Head Office.
assessment (for
accreditation
bodies)
HPC Househould and Personal Care (products)
Integrity Program implemented by IFS in order to:
Program Monitor, as preventive actions performance of auditors and
certification bodies as well as audited companies,
Manage, as corrective actions, any complaints addressed to
IFS.
Internal audit General process of audit, for all the activity of the company.
Conducted by or on behalf of the company for internal pur-
poses.
Internal auditing is an independent, objective assurance and
consulting activity designed to add value and improve an
organizations operations. It helps an organization accomplish
its objectives by bringing a systematic, disciplined approach to
evaluate and improve the effectiveness of risk management,
control, and governance processes.
Monitoring The act of conducting a planned sequence of observations or
measurements of control parameters to assess whether a CCP
is under control.
See also Codex Alimentarius, General principles of Food hygiene,
Guidelines for the application of the HACCP system, section 9.
Non-conformity Non-fulfilment of a specified requirement. Non-conformity can
be given in non-respect of legislation, law, product safety,
internal dysfunctions and customer issues. In the IFS, defined
non-conformities are Majors and KOs scored with a D.
IFS, October 2013

Procedure Specified way to carry out an activity or process. Procedures

shall be implemented and the elaboration of procedures shall
be done by documents or process description (e.g. flowchart).
Product Result of a process or activities transforming inputs into
outputs. Products include services.
Product The creation of products with new or different characteristics
development that offer new or additional benefits to the customer. Product
development may involve modification of an existing product
or its presentation, or formulation of an entirely new product
that satisfies a newly defined customer who wants a market
niche. In the IFS Standard, the requirements for chapter product
development apply even if there is just a product modification,
use of new packaging materials or modifications of production
processes.
Product group Grouping of products due to similar characteristics or legal
requirements (e.g. dairy products, meat products, cosmetic
products).
Product recall Any measure aimed at achieving the return of a dangerous
product that has already been supplied or made available to
consumers by the producer or distributor.
Product Product requirements includes: product safety, product quality,
requirements product legality, process and specification.
Product with- Any measure aimed at preventing the distribution, display and
drawal offer of a product dangerous to the consumer.
Reviewer Person of the certification body in charge of assessing the IFS
audits reports before a certification decision is made.
The tasks of the reviewer are, at least:
To check the overall consistency of the audit reports.
To check if the audit reports are properly completed
(e.g. compulsory fields, etc.)
To check if the findings are well described and if the justifi-
cations are relevant.
To check if the corrective actions proposed by the audited
company have been validated by the auditor (or by a
representative of the certification body) and are relevant.
The review shall be documented.
Risk A function of the probability of an adverse health effect and the
severity of that effect consequential to (a) hazard(s) in product.
Risk assessment Overall process of risk identification, risk analysis and risk
evaluation.
Senior Executive management.
management
Services See definition of product.
Site A unit of the company.
Supplier A supplier provides products and/or services to a customer.
System Set of interrelated or interacting elements. System is a planned,
sustainable structured course of action. Depending on the
complexity, documentation is recommended. System includes:
documentation, procedure description, control/monitoring,
corrective action, site plan.
Traceability Ability to trace and follow a product through all stages of
production, processing and distribution.
Transport Transportation is the movement of goods from one place to
another.
IFS, October 2013

Validation Confirmation through the provision of objective evidences that

the requirements for the specific intended use or application
have been fulfilled.
Verification Confirmation through the provision of objective evidences that
specified requirements have been fulfilled.
Witness Assessment of the Conformity Assessment Body when it is
assessment carrying out conformity assessment services within its scope of
(by accreditation accreditation.
bodies)
Witness audit The auditor who is witnessed shall be accompanied by an
before applying observer from the certification body during a complete audit in
to IFS (Food, order to evaluate his/her competence.The observer shall not be
HPC or IFS PAC part of the audit (as a team member).
secure) examina- The observer shall fulfil the same requirements as for trainers
tions (for the corresponding Standard) or shall be an IFS (PACsecure
or Food or HPC) auditor.
This witness audit shall be a product safety audit (respectively
packaging material or food or HPC products, depending on the
product Standard the auditor applies for) and/or an audit under
ISO 17065 norm.
On the application file of the auditor (sent afterwards to the IFS
offices), the certification body shall specify the name of the
company, audit date and name of the person who observed the
auditor.
Witness audit, The auditor who is witnessed shall be accompanied by an
to be performed observer from the certification body during a complete IFS
every 2 years, Broker (or IFS Food or IFS HPC or IFS PACsecure or other GFSI
for IFS Broker recognized standard for broker) audit, in order to evaluate
approved his/her competence.The observer shall not be part of the audit
auditors (as a team member).
The observer shall fulfil the same requirements as for trainers
(for the corresponding Standard, with participation in IFS
Broker training) or shall be an IFS auditor who is approved to
perform audits according to IFS Broker (IFS Food or HPC or IFS
PACsecure with participation in IFS Broker training).
The witness audit shall be an IFS Broker or IFS Food or IFS HPC
or IFS PACsecure audit.
The certification body shall specify the name of the observer in
the participants list of the IFS audit report and shall be able to
provide minutes of this witness audit.
IFS, October 2013

ANNEX 2: Compulsory fields to be completed

by the auditor
The following requirements, where compulsory fields shall be com-

pleted, shall lead to a more significant and descriptive IFS audit report,
even if the auditee nearly fulfils all IFS requirements.These remarks are
an added value for every user of the audit reports. The auditor is
requested to provide, during an audit, and even in the case of an A
evaluation, an additional justification and/or additional background
information for these specific IFS requirements.
The following points shall at any rate be replied to:
Part of the audit Number of IFS Compulsory remarks to be added

report Broker require- ** to be additionally described in English, if the company profile is
ment written in a different language from English
Company profile First page of the The auditor shall provide the following information:
audit report The year of construction of the site,
The GLN (GS1 number), if available,
The COID (IFS identification code number), in case of renewal
audit,
If there are seasonal breaks in activity during more than one week,
please specify the time frame,**
The name and contact data (phone/fax/e-mail) of the contact
person in case of emergency (e.g. withdrawal/recall),
Product groups and products per group traded in the company
Complete view of the companys processes,**
If the audited company performs additional logistics and/or if a
processing company has broker services and would like to certify
both activities, specify the kind of activities,**
How many employees are there, listed according to full-time and
part-time workers (own employees, external companies), shift
work,**
The number and names of the sub-companies (sites) of the
company (where are they situated, if they are IFS certified),
precision about names and kinds of sub-contracted part(s) of the
process and if the audited company performs additional logistics
activities of the logistical services,**
The site area in square meters,
State if the company fulfils the requirements about use of IFS logo,
as defined in IFS audit protocol,
If the site is certified according to other schemes, please specify
the schemes names.
Product safety KO N 2: Description of the risk management/HACCP plans and available flow
management 2.1.1 diagrams.
Contract agree- 4.1.1 The auditor shall provide the following information:
ment number of checked customer contracts,
which information has been checked,
which method.
Specifications KO N 3: Description of name of specification which have been checked during
4.2.2 the audit.
Purchasing 4.4.7 If there are specific customer requirements for finished/semi-finished
products used in private labels, a short description on how customer
requirements are approved on pre-supplier level shall be provided.
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Part of the audit Number of IFS Compulsory remarks to be added

report Broker require- ** to be additionally described in English, if the company profile is
ment written in a different language from English
Packaging 4.5.1 Description of which kind of packaging material is used for the final
material products.
Traceability KO N 4: Description:
4.6.1 of the traceability system and documentation for traceability in the
company,
of the results, in detail, of traceability tests during the audit and the
samples used for this/these test/s.
The traceability test(s) shall always be based on a sample purchased
from a retail outlet or at least chosen by the auditor, (e.g. in cases in
which the product is not sold to the final consumer but to other
clients like industry).
GMO 4.7.1 The auditor shall provide the following information:
Is the company working with products consisting of GMOs,
containing GMOs or produced from GMOs?
Internal audits KO N 5: The auditor shall provide the following information:
5.1.1 Which activities has the company identified as critical to product
safety and to product specifications?
Product analysis KO N 6: The auditor shall provide the following information:
5.2.2 Are special analyses demanded by the customer? Which ones?
Complaint 5.4.1 The auditor shall provide the following information:
management Range or indicator of complaints raised from customers and
authorities
Range or indicator about complaints related to foreign materials
found in the finished products, specifying kind of foreign materials.
Withdrawal/ KO N 7: The auditor shall provide the following information:
recall 5.5.2 How many withdrawals and recalls have been performed since the
last audit?
What were the reasons of withdrawals and recalls: specify the
cause of withdrawals and the product safety issue in case of recall.
IFS, October 2013

Part 3: Requirements for Accreditation

Bodies, Certification Bodies and
Auditors
IFS accreditation and certification
process
0 Introduction
IFS Broker certification is a services conformity certification, to ensure
that broker services lead to safe, legal and compliant products. All bod-
ies involved shall comply with the international rules and IFS-specific
requirements described in this document. Part 3 of the Standard deals
mainly with accreditation bodies, certification bodies and auditors.
1 Requirements for the Accreditation Bodies
1.1 General requirements
The accreditation bodies shall fulfil the requirements of the ISO/IEC

17011 norm Conformity assessment General requirements for Accred-
itation Bodies accrediting conformity assessment bodies, and shall
have signed the MLA (Multilateral Agreement) for Product Certification
of the EA or IAF.
As soon as it will come into force, the accreditation bodies shall also
fulfill the GFSI requirements for the Application of ISO/IEC 17011:2004,
which is complementary of the below requirements.
In order to ensure interactive communication, the accreditation body

shall appoint an IFS contact person within their organisation.
1.2 The training of the accreditation committee

(or competent person)
In general, all accreditation body personnel engaged in IFS Broker
accreditation activity shall have sufficient knowledge of the IFS Broker
scheme, related normative documents and broker services.
Decisions on accreditation can only be made following a recommenda-

tion of a competent person or accreditation committee. The person in
charge, or at least one member of the accreditation committee, shall
have taken part in an IFS Broker training session organised by IFS or
IFS, October 2013

shall be able to demonstrate equivalent knowledge level as confirmed

by IFS. In case of a committee, the trained person provides the other
members of the accreditation committee with the necessary informa-
tion.This information is based on the main points of the Broker course.
1.3 Competences of the assessor of the accreditation

body
The assessor(s) of the accreditation bodies is responsible for the follow-
ing:
accompanying IFS Broker auditors during registered IFS Broker
audits (witness assessment),
assessing the head office of the certification body (head office
assessment) according to the ISO/IEC 17065 norm rules and
IFS-specific requirements.
In general, the assessor(s) shall meet ISO/IEC 17065 norm and IFS
requirements.
Witness assessors shall, at a minimum:

Have taken part in the IFS Broker course, or shall be able to
demonstrate an equivalent knowledge level as confirmed by
IFS,
Have taken part in an HACCP course or other course related to
hazard analysis and assessment of associated risks,
Have a minimum of two (2) years experience in the food or
HPC or packaging sector.
Head office assessors shall, at a minimum:

Have specific knowledge in the IFS Broker scheme,
Have specific knowledge of the related normative documents.
1.4 Frequency of the assessments of certification bodies
For initial and renewal assessments, a head office assessment and at

least one witness assessment shall be performed.
During the surveillance of the accreditation cycle:

A minimum of one head office assessment a year,
A minimum of one witness assessment every two (2) years
shall take place.
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Remark: a flexibility of three (3) months at the maximum can be allowed

for the interval between two (2) assessments, according to the accredi-
tation body rules.
During head office assessments, the following documentation shall be

sampled and assessed, as a minimum:
At least 10 % or two (2) IFS auditor files, whichever is greater,
At least two (2) site files or 2 % of delivered audits, whichever is
greater.
For consecutive witness assessments, the accreditation body shall,
wherever possible, select two different certification bodys IFS auditors
with different scopes.
1.5 Accreditation of an internationally-active

certification body
The witness assessments shall cover the typical activities (including
international activities and critical locations) of the certification body. If
the accreditation body subcontracts an assessment, the subcontracted
accreditation body shall be a signatory to the IAF MLA for Product Cer-
tification. IAF GD 3 Cross Frontier Policy shall apply.
1.6 Conditions for recovering accreditation after

withdrawal or suspension
In case the accreditation body decides to withdraw or suspend accredi-
tation, certification bodies shall stop performing IFS Broker audits and
issuing IFS Broker certificates.To recover accreditation, the same condi-
tions as for initial assessment apply.
In case of accreditation suspension, IFS and accreditation body will
jointly determine requirements to remove suspension.
1.7 Transfer of certification
In case one certification body decides to transfer its certification activi-

ties to another one, the new certification body shall verify all current IFS
Broker certificates, in order to decide if further actions (e.g. withdrawal
of recent certificates or additional IFS renewal audit) will be necessary.
IFS, October 2013

2 Requirements for the Certification Bodies

Certification bodies intending to perform IFS Broker audits shall comply
with the following rules. The prescribed tender procedure for certifica-
tion bodies is supplied by IFS.
2.1 ISO/IEC 17065 IFS accreditation process
The certification body shall be accredited according to ISO/IEC 17065

norm for the scope of IFS Broker by an IAF or EA recognised accredita-
tion body (see section 1.) Certification bodies in the process of IFS
accreditation to ISO/IEC 17065 norm may organise the witness assess-
ment before having achieved accreditation status. They shall demon-
strate that they are actively applying for ISO/IEC 17065 accreditation. If
the certification body is accredited for IFS Food without relevant accred-
itation extension for IFS Broker, the accreditation logo shall not be used
on certificates and any other documents.
Note: in case of withdrawal or suspension of the ISO/IEC 17065 accred-

itation for the scope of IFS Broker for the certification body, the whole
certification process is stopped and the certification body is no longer
allowed to issue any IFS certificates. In particular, the certification body
cannot issue IFS Broker certificates from the date of withdrawal or sus-
pension, even for the audits which have been already performed but
which are still in the certification process (review of the report, certifica-
tion decision, etc.).
2.2 Signing of contract with the proprietor of IFS
After having applied and then gained IFS accreditation to ISO/IEC 17065
norm, in order to be allowed to perform IFS audits, the certification
body shall sign a contract with IFS in which it commits to meet all IFS
requirements. The certification body is not authorised to perform IFS
audits (except the first witness assessment during the accreditation pro-
cess) before having signed this contract.
2.3 Certification decision
The person in charge of assessing the audit reports (reviewer) shall be

respectively either an approved IFS Food or HPC or IFS PACsecure audi-
tor, who participated in the Broker course, an IFS trainer (for the corre-
sponding Standard, with participation in the Broker course) or shall ful-
fil the following rules:
To have a food or packaging material university degree and two
(2) years professional experience in the food or packaging
material or HPC safety and quality related professions
IFS, October 2013

To have attended (as auditor or observer) at ten (10) complete

audits (related to GFSI recognised standards or other food or
packaging or HPC safety schemes) in the last five (5) years
To have participated in a hygiene training course
To have participated in IFS Broker course
To be different of the person who performed the audit.
The reviewer shall have the food or HPC or packaging material knowl-
edge related to the main activity of the broker whose report is assessed
(respectively IFS Broker audits for food products or HPC products or
packaging materials).
The review shall be documented.
The decision concerning the certification can only be made following

the recommendation of a competent person or a certification commit-
tee. Furthermore, decision can only be made by a person different from
the person who performed the audit.The competent person for the cer-
tification decision or at least one of the members of the certification
committee shall be respectively an IFS Food or HPC or IFS PACsecure
auditor, who participated in the Broker course, an IFS trainer (for the
corresponding Standard, with participation in the Broker course) or an
IFS Food or HPC or IFS PACsecure reviewer.
The final certification decision shall be made by the certification body

and shall not be subcontracted.
2.4 Certification bodies responsibilities for IFS trainers

(for IFS Food or IFS PACsecure auditors) and the IFS
auditors (including freelancers)
Certification bodies have the following responsibilities:

To facilitate witness audits (by accreditation bodies and/or by
Integrity Program).
To perform an on-site witness audit of an auditor during a prod-
uct safety audit (respectively packaging material or food or HPC
products, depending on the product Standard the auditor
applies for) and/or an audit under ISO/IEC 17065 accreditation
to ensure the auditors competence (see glossary) before he/she
has applied for the IFS examinations. The certification body
shall state the date, the name of the audited company where
the on-site witness audit took place, and the name of the
observer in the IFS examination application file.The minutes of
the on-site witness audit shall be provided on request to IFS in
English, French or German.The observer for the on-site witness
audit of an auditor applying for IFS examination shall comply
with the same requirements as the trainers (see section 2.5) or
shall be an IFS Food or HPC or IFS PACsecure auditor.
IFS, October 2013

To be fully cognisant of the examination regulations provided

by the IFS offices.
For auditors who are approved for IFS Food or IFS PACsecure,
to ensure that at least one member of their staff is a correspond-
ing IFS trainer who has taken part in a corresponding IFS Train
the Trainer course; the trainer is responsible for the in-house
training of all auditors intending to become IFS auditors or who
already are IFS auditors. Persons intending to become IFS train-
ers shall meet the requirements mentioned in 2.5.
Note: for a certification body which is starting IFS activities,
this in-house training can be organised by IFS, on request.
To ensure that the auditor is competent for the scope of the
audit and its execution and is able to access and to apply rele-
vant laws and regulations, based on IFS and internal certifica-
tion bodys requirements; the certification body shall maintain
these competences (continuous supervision by the certification
body) and shall monitor audit execution by on-site witness
audit.
Every auditor shall be monitored during an IFS Broker (or IFS
Food or IFS HPC or IFS PACsecure or other GFSI recognized
standard for broker) on-site witness audit at least once every
two (2) years and the results of this witness audit shall be docu-
mented. The observer shall be an IFS auditor, who is approved
to perform audits according to IFS Broker (IFS Food or HPC or
IFS PACsecure approval with participation in IFS Broker train-
ing) or shall follow the same rules as for corresponding trainers
(see section 2.5, with participation in a Broker training).
To include the name of the observer in the audit portal when
uploading the audit data, when it has scheduled specific on-site
IFS witness audit(s).
To maintain records of auditor competences.
To ensure that no auditor has either acted against IFS rules, for
example acting as a consultant, or has been active in and/or on
behalf of the company being audited during the previous two
(2) years. That is to say, during the certification process, no
other commercial and/or personal relationships are permitted
between the auditee and the auditor.
To ensure that no auditor shall perform more than three (3) con-
secutive IFS Broker audits of the same trading site (only applies
for complete audits, whatever the time between them; follow
up and extension audits are not concerned by this rule).
To ensure that an auditor is employed by only one IFS certifica-
tion body for performing IFS Broker audits and this for a period
of not less than 12 months. In special cases, IFS offices shall be
contacted and may allow exceptions.
To sign an audit order for each audit, this includes a statement
accepting all the above-mentioned requirements.
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To organise a training session for IFS Broker auditors once a

year for the purposes of sharing experience, calibration and
updating knowledge of relevant legal requirements, etc. This
training can be part of the yearly training for IFS Food or IFS
HPC or IFS PACsecure.
The certification body is responsible for choosing an auditor with the

corresponding language, competence(s), etc. for each IFS audit.
2.5 Specific requirements for IFS trainers (for IFS Food

or IFS PACsecure auditors)
In case of auditors coming from the food or packaging sector:
IFS trainers shall respectively have the following profile:

Fulfil requirements for IFS Food or IFS PACsecure auditors
respectively, from a) to d), as described in the current IFS Food
or IFS PACsecure Standard,
Have audit experience to GFSI standards or other food or pack-
aging material safety schemes,
Have knowledge of food or packaging legislation,
Have taken part in a Train theTrainer course organised by IFS,
Be fluent in writing and speaking the languages they will use
during participating at training and leading training; they shall
inform the IFS offices about the languages they are able to use
when teaching.
The Train theTrainer course is provided by the IFS.
Note: Train the trainer course only concern IFS Food and IFS PACsecure
auditors.
3 Requirements for IFS Broker auditors
3.1 Requirements for IFS Broker auditors
IFS Broker auditor qualification relies on IFS Food or IFS PACsecure or

IFS HPC auditor approval.
To perform audits according to IFS Broker version 2, the auditor shall be

approved for IFS Food, IFS HPC or IFS PACsecure (with additional par-
ticipation in an IFS Broker course).The required qualification is different
depending on the audit scope of IFS Broker version 2 (see table 1).
IFS, October 2013

Table 1: Required auditor qualification for the IFS Broker scopes
Scope Required auditor qualification

Trading Food from IFS Food approval either for product scopes 1,
(logistical animal origin 2, 3, 4, 7 or 11 + IFS Broker training
activities are
Food from no IFS Food approval either for product scopes
excluded)
animal origin 5, 6, 8, 9 or 10 + IFS Broker training
Packaging IFS PACsecure approval either for product
scopes 1 to 6 + Broker training OR
IFS HPC approval (for scope 3) + Broker training
Household and IFS HPC approval either for product scopes
Personal Care 1 to 4 + IFS Broker training
Note: see also Annex 4, Part 1, for the correspondence between product
scope numbers and names for each IFS Standard.
It is mandatory that the auditors are at least qualified for one product
scope related to the core business of the broker, as defined in the above
table. Therefore, specific approval for IFS Food, IFS HPC or IFS PAC-
secure is required, depending on the respective audited products.
For brokers which trade several product groups (e.g. whole retailers
assortment), auditors have to be approved for one of the product scopes
related to Food from animal origin.
In general, the auditors shall meet the requirements of chapters 7.2 and
7.3.1 of ISO 19011.
As part of IFS good auditing practices, auditors shall, during an IFS Bro-
ker audit, use relevant samples of products, in order to investigate on-
site the auditees broker activities and documentation, to check the ful-
filment of IFS Broker requirements and to assess the brokers services
compliance. In particular, auditors shall perform, during the audit, a
traceability test in the company.
IFS publishes guidelines which provide further information on topics to

be checked and/or requested to the audited company during the audit.
Auditors should use these guidelines to perform the audit.
3.2 Requirements for IFS Broker auditors, approved to

perform combined audits IFS Broker and IFS product
standards (IFS HPC, IFS Food, IFS PACsecure)
Auditors can perform combined audits for food or packaging or house-
hold and personal care products if they are qualified for performing
both IFS Broker and IFS HPC or Food or PAC secure audits.
IFS, October 2013

3.3 IFS Broker training
An auditor, who is approved for IFS Food and/or IFS HPC and/or IFS
PACsecure can perform audits in the specific scopes of IFS Broker (see
table 1), if he/she has participated in the IFS Broker training. The train-
ing is provided by IFS.
When a new version of the Broker Standard is published, the auditors
shall take part in the new IFS Broker course.
The requirements for IFS Food, IFS PACsecure and IFS HPC auditors are
specified in the respective IFS Standards, which can be downloaded for
free on IFS homepage (www.ifs-certification.com).
3.4 Audit team
In general, all members of the audit team shall be IFS approved audi-
tors.
In case of auditing with teams, the following general regulations apply:
An IFS audit team consists of IFS approved auditors whose pro-
file complies with the activities of the audited factory.
A lead auditor shall always be appointed.
Two (2) hours of the audit duration are not shareable; this addi-
tional time shall be allocated to the team, not to an individual
auditor, for common tasks (e.g. opening and closing meeting,
discussion about audit findings, etc.)
It shall be clearly indicated in the audit time schedule which auditor did
which part of the audit.
The minimum audit duration shall anyway be respected.
Auditors without the fitting scopes are not allowed to perform the IFS
audit and cannot be taken into consideration as relevant auditors (they
can only take part as trainees).
3.5 Maintaining IFS Broker auditor qualification
The IFS Broker auditor approval relies on the auditor approval of IFS
Food, IFS HPC and/or IFS PACsecure.
To maintain IFS Broker qualification, the auditor shall also fulfill the fol-
lowing requirements:
Every auditor shall be monitored by an IFS Broker (or IFS Food

or IFS HPC or IFS PACsecure or other GFSI recognised standard
for broker) on-site witness audit at least once every two (2)
years (see also chapter 2.4).
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Every auditor shall perform at least 1 IFS Broker audit per year.
Every auditor shall attend an in-house training course, once a

year, for the purposes of sharing experience, calibration and
updating knowledge of relevant legal requirements, etc. This
training can be part of the yearly training for IFS Food or IFS
HPC or IFS PACsecure.
IFS, October 2013

Part 4: Reporting, auditXpressTM

Software and IFS Audit portal
0 Introduction
After an IFS Broker audit has been performed, a detailed and well-struc-
tured audit report shall be completed. In general, the language of the
report shall be the native or working language of the company. In spe-
cial cases, where the native language of the retailers or purchasers is
different from the language of the company, an English language ver-
sion of the report could also be prepared. (See also the rules described
in Part 1).
The IFS audit report shall be prepared according to the following for-
mat.
Please note: For combined audits IFS Broker/IFS Logistics or IFS Bro-
ker/IFS Food or IFS Broker/IFS HPC or IFS Broker/IFS PACsecure, two
separate reports shall be written, and two separate certificates shall be
uploaded in the database.
1 Reporting
1.1 Audit overview (Annex 1)

The first part of the audit report shall contain the following general
information:
Audit details
The cover page of the audit report shall include:
name and address of the certification body
the logo of the certification body
the certification bodys accreditation details
name of the audited company or site
date of the audit.
These first pages shall give a summary of the most important audit
report items and shall include:
name and address of the audited site
name and address of the company (if headquarters)
EAN. UCC Global Location Number, if available
IFS, October 2013

COID, as defined in the IFS portal

audit date (in case of a follow up audit the date of the follow up
audit shall additionally be defined)
time of the audit
previous audit date
the name of the certification body and the auditor who per-
formed the previous audit
details of the version of the Standard
audit scope (description of products which are traded, specify-
ing the related product scope number, as described in Part 1,
Annex 4). The audit scope shall always be translated as well in
English language
If the audited company performs additional logistics and/or if a
processing company has broker services and would like to cer-
tify both activities, specify the kind of activities
list of key personnel present at audit
name of the lead auditor
if applicable additional name of the co-auditor
if applicable name of the auditor trainee
result of the audit (in case of a follow up audit, to specify that a
follow up audit has taken place and that the Major non-con-
formity has been solved)
company profile: general information about the company
(number of employees, size, structure, detailed activities of the
company etc.), with compulsory fields (see Annex 2, Part 2). In
particular, detailed activity of the company (if there are subcon-
tracted activities, etc.) shall be described in order to identify full
services and products. Parts of the company profile have to be
additionally described in English, if the company profile is writ-
ten in a different language from English (see Annex 2, Part 2)
further explanations regarding scoring and frequency
below the company profile: name of the person in charge of
assessing the report (reviewer).
1.2 Audit report (Annex 2)
The audit report itself is structured as follows:

the result of the audit with level and percentage
observations on KOs and Major non-conformities (in case of a
follow up audit, additional explanation on which requirement
the Major non-conformity has been solved)
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a general summary table for all chapters

an overall summary of the audit (of all chapters)
a list of all established deviations and non-conformities for
each chapter (1 to 6)
compulsory explanations for some IFS Broker requirements,
even in case of A evaluation (see Annex 2 of Part 2)
a description of follow up of corrective actions from the previ-
ous audit
a separate list (including explanations) of all requirements eval-
uated with N/A (not applicable)
a detailed audit report.
1.3 Action plan (Annex 3)
The certification body/the auditor describes and explains all established

deviations and non-conformities (KOs, Majors) in each chapter in the
action plan, which has a specified format shown in the annex.
1.4 Minimum requirements for IFS certificate (Annex 4)
After successful completion of the IFS Broker process, the certification

body shall issue a certificate. For the purposes of international recogni-
tion, and so as to be understandable, IFS certificates awarded by the
certification body shall include the following information at a minimum:
the name and address of the certification body, including its logo
the logo of the accreditation body or its name and registration
number; the logo of accreditation body shall be used in con-
formity with accreditation bodys rules
the name and address of the audited company
the COID, as defined in the IFS portal
if the company is a subsidiary, the name of the companys
headquarters
audit scope (with mandatory description of products which are
traded and product scope numbers, as defined in Part 1,
Annex 4). The audit scope shall always be translated as well
into English language.
If the trading company additionally has own logistics activities
(storage, distribution and/or transport) which are IFS Logistics
certified, the IFS Broker certificate shall specify: The company
also has own logistics activities, which are IFS Logistics certified.
If those logistics activities are not IFS Logistics certified, the IFS
Broker certificate shall specify: The company also has own
logistics activities, which are not IFS Logistics certified.
IFS, October 2013

level achieved
audit score in percentage, if required by the customer or by the
audited company
date of audit (last day of audit)
date of follow up audit if relevant
next audit to be performed within the time period
certificate issue date
certificate expiry date, i.e. 12 months after the date of issue the
certificate (the certificate validity date shall remain the same
each year as described in the audit protocol, Part 1)
place and date of signature
name and signature of the certification bodys person(s) respon-
sible for the certification decision as described in Part 3 of the
Standard
IFS Broker logo
Please note: the auditXpressTM software includes a certificate format

with the minimum required content, but each IFS ISO/IEC 17065-accred-
ited certification body may use its own layout, providing that it includes
these minimum requirements.
2 auditXpressTM Software
In order to increase the standardisation of IFS reporting, auditXpressTM
software has been developed. It offers the following advantages:
easy collection of audit data through a user-friendly interface
production of quick and error-free IFS audit reports
automatic evaluation of the audit results by dynamic computa-
tion of all relevant items
automatic generation of a standardised audit report
temporary storage of interim audit data for later completion
simple and secure export of completed audit reports to the IFS
audit portal
simple exchange of audit files between the auditors and their
competent certification body
offline working, i.e. no permanent Internet connection required
an update option provides constant access to the most recent
version of the IFS.
IFS, October 2013

3 The IFS Audit portal and the IFS Database

(www.ifs-certification.com)
Every IFS audit shall be uploaded to the IFS audit portal by the certifica-
tion body (uploading of report, action plan and certificate).
There are 3 user groups which have access to the IFS database:
Certification bodies
Certified companies
Retailers and other users.
The different groups access rights are as follows:
Certification bodies:
manage their certified companies and upload audit reports,
action plans and certificates
may suspend certificates in specific situations
can manage all IFS audit dates via the diary function, enabling
retailers and companies to have a good overview of the sched-
uled audits. It is mandatory to upload in the diary function of
the audit portal all audits dates, at latest 2 weeks before the
audit.
manage their accounts
have the possibility to compare two consecutive audit reports
and action plans, for internal auditor training and calibration
purposes
download the IFS logo(s).
Certified companies/suppliers:
have access to their own audit data
have the possibility to unlock retailers and other users for their
achieved percentage, detailed audit report and action plan
have the possibility to compare two consecutive audit reports
and action plans, for improvement purposes
download the IFS logo(s)
manage their certification bodies
manage company personnel access (create sub-accounts) to
the audit data
search for other certified companies
manage their suppliers using a favourites option.
IFS, October 2013

Access for the headquarters of certified companies

A headquarter access for certified companies can be set up which
allows a company headquarter to administer all of their certified sites
through a single access point.
Retailers and other users:

search for certified companies
manage their certified companies via a favourites option
get information via e-mail in case of a certificate suspension of
their favourite companies.
The user manuals for the IFS Audit portal are available on the respective
secured area for each user group.
Security of the database

The security system used for the database is based on international
recognised and mostly used security systems. The retailer and certified
companies access provide general information about all certified com-
panies. If no further authorisation is granted by the certified companies
both user groups will be able to see the following information only:
the companys name and address
the certification bodys name and address
the auditors name
the scope of the audit (including product scope numbers)
the date and duration of the audit
the level achieved at the audit
the IFS certificates date of issue, its validity duration and the
time frame for the realisation of the renewal audit.
By using their secure log-in access the certified companies themselves

can give the authorisation for access to the following detailed informa-
tion:
audit report and action plan.
The retailers and other users/certified companies automatically receive

access to the unlocked data by the certified company after the data has
been unlocked. Communication to retailers and other users is via a
secure Web process which guarantees that only authorised retailers
and other users/certified companies can view specific data of the certi-
fied companies/suppliers.
IFS, October 2013

ANNEX 1
Cover page of the audit report
Logo of the certification body
IFS Broker, Version 2
Final Audit Report
Audited company: Broker GmbH
Date of audit: 02. 07. 2014
Name and address of certification body
Accreditation number of certification body
IFS, October 2013

First pages of the audit report
IFS Broker
Version 2, 2013
Audit Overview
Audit details
Lead auditor: Date/time of current audit: Date/time of previous audit:
Max Mustermann 02. 07. 2014 06. 07. 2013
(09:0018:00) (09:0018:00)
Co-auditor:
Falk Lehmann CB and auditor of previous audit:
TEST GmbH/FrankTest
Co-auditor:
Mr. Example
Name and address of the company (or headquarter) Name and address of the audited site
Broker AG Broker GmbH
Example street Musterstrae
12345 Witzenhausen 12346 Berlin
Germany Germany
EAN Code/UCC Global Location Number
COID
Phone: Fax: Phone: Fax:
0 12 34 56 01 23 45 67 89 0 12 34 57 01 23 45 67 88
Scope of audit
Trading of fruits and vegetables

IFS Food product scope n 5
(Mandatory translation into English of the audit scope)
Audit participants
Name: Position: Opening Documentation Site assess- Closing
meeting review ment (Audit): meeting
Mr. Quality Quality

X X X X
Manager
Mr. Manager General
X X
Manager
Final Result of Audit
As a result of the audit performed on 02. 07., xyz found that the activi- Next audit
ties/services of Broker GmbH for the above-mentioned scope of audit between
comply with the requirements set out in the IFS Broker, Version 2, at Foun- XX.XX and
dation Level, with a score of XX %. XX.XX
Company profile
Trading of fruits and vegetables (IFS Food product scope n 5)

(Mandatory translation into English of detailed activity of the company including all processes and products)
Reviewer:
Explanations regarding the audit report
Evaluation of requirements
Result Explanation Points

KO requirement Almost full compliance 15 points
scored with a B
C (deviation) Small part of the requirement has been 5 points
implemented
D (deviation) Requirement has not been implemented 20 points
Major When there is a substantial failure to 15 % of the possi-

meet the requirements of the Standard, ble total amount of
which includes product safety and/or points is sub-
the legal requirements of the destination tracted
countries. A Major non-conformity can
also be given when the identified
non-conformity can lead to a serious
health hazard.
KO requirement The KO requirement has not been 50 % of the possi-
scored with a D implemented ble total amount of
points is sub-
tracted
N/A Not applicable N/A requirements

Requirement not applicable for a will be excluded
company from the final
scoring
IFS, October 2013

Scoring and awarding of certificates
Audit Result Status Action company Report form Certificate

At least 1 KO Not approved Actions and new Report gives No
scored with D initial audit to be status
agreed upon
> 1 Major Not approved Actions and new Report gives No
and/or < 75 % initial audit to be status
of the agreed upon
requirements
are fulfilled
Max 1 Major Not approved Send completed Report includ- Certificate at
and 75 % of unless further action plan ing action foundation
the require- actions taken within 2 weeks plan gives level, if the
ments are and validated of receiving the status Major non-
fulfilled aftr follow-up preliminarily conformity is
audit report. Follow-up finally solved
audit max. as controlled
6 months after during the
the audit date follow-up
audit
75 % and foundation action plan ing action cate at
< 95 % level after within 2 weeks plan gives foundation
receipt of the of receiving the status level,
action plans preliminarily 12 months
report. validity
95 % higher level action plan ing action cate at higher
after receipt within 2 weeks plan gives level,
of the action of receiving the status 12 months
plan preliminarily validity
report.
IFS, October 2013

ANNEX 2
IFS Broker
Version 2, 2013
Audit Report
Result:
The activities/services of company Broker GmbH met the require-
ments of the IFS Broker, Version 2.
The company passed with a score of XX % at:

Foundation (Higher) level
%
Date of renewal audit: between the XX/XX and the XX/XX.
Summary:
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6

Senior Quality Resource Planning Measure- Food
manage- and prod- manage- and ments, defense
ment uct safety ment services analyses, assess-
responsi- manage- process improvement
bility ment ments
system
KO 0 0 0 0 0 0
Majors 0 0 0 0 0 0
A 0 0 0 0 0 0
B 0 0 0 0 0 0
C 0 0 0 0 0 0
D 0 0 0 0 0 0
N/A 0 0 0 0 0 0
Observations regarding KOs and Majors:
General summary table for all chapters:
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Total
IFS, October 2013

Overall summary of the audit:
Description of follow up of corrective actions from the previous audit:
Chapter 1: Senior management responsibility
Summary of all Chapter 1 deviations and non-conformities found:
N Reference IFS requirements Evaluation Explanation

1. 1.1.1
2. 1.1.2
Report of the N/A evaluations

1.
Detailed audit report

1.
2.
IFS, October 2013

ANNEX 3
Action plan
Name and address of the audited company
The Corrective Action Plan must be returned to the certification body

before:
Requirement IFS Evaluation Explanation Corrective Responsibility/ Release

number requirement (by the action Date/Status of by the
auditor) (by the implementa- auditor
company) tion (by the
company)
IFS, October 2013

ANNEX 4
CERTIFICATE
Herewith the certification body
Name of the certification body
being an accredited certification body for IFS certification and having signed an
agreement with the IFS owner,
confirms that the activities/services of
Name of the audited company

Address
COID
(Headquarter)
for the audit scope:
Trading of: (description of products which are traded

and related product scope numbers)
meet the requirements set out in the
IFS Broker
Version 2, 2013
at Foundation level/Higher Level
with a score of XX % (if requried)
Certificate register number: ________________________________________________

Audit date: ________________________________________________
(If relevant: date of follow up audit)
Date of issue of certificate: ________________________________________________

Certificate valid until: ________________________________________________
Next audit to be performed within the time period: _____________________________
(specify soonest and latest audit date, according to requirements of audit protocol, Part 1)
Date and place

Name and signature of the responsible person
at the certification body
Address of the certification body
Logo of the accreditation body

or its name and registration number
IFS, October 2013

ANNEX
Checklist of the IFS Broker, Version 2

This checklist is only for internal use in the audited company. It is not
allowed to copy and to present it to other parties.
Number IFS Broker 2 Requirements KO/ A B C D Remarks/

Major/ Comments
NA
1 Senior Management Responsibility
1.1 Corporate policy/Corporate principles
1.1.1 The senior management shall draw up and
implement a corporate policy.This shall consider
as a minimum:
customer focus
environmental responsibility
sustainability
ethics and personnel responsibility
product requirements (includes: product
safety, quality, legality, process and specifica-
tion).
The corporate policy shall be communicated to all
employees.
1.1.2 All relevant information related to product
safety and quality shall be communicated effec-
tively and in a timely manner to the relevant
personnel.
1.2 Corporate structure
1.2.1 An organisation chart shall be available showing
the structure of the company.
1.2.2 Competences and responsibilities, including
deputation of responsibility shall be clearly laid
down.
1.2.3 The senior management shall ensure that employ-
KO n 1 ees are aware of their responsibilities related to
product safety and quality and that mechanisms
are in place to monitor the effectiveness of their
operation. Such mechanisms shall be clearly
identified and documented.
1.2.4 The company shall ensure that all processes
(documented and undocumented) are known by
the relevant personnel and are applied consist-
ently.
1.2.5 The company shall have a system in place, to
ensure that it is kept informed of all relevant
legislation on traded products safety and quality
issues, scientific and technical developments and
industry codes of practice.
IFS, October 2013

Major/ Comments
NA
1.2.6 The company shall inform its customers, as soon
as possible, of any issue related to product specifi-
cation, in particular of all non-conformity(ies) ident-
ified by competent authorities related to products
which could have, has or has had a defined impact
on safety and/or legality of respective products.
This could include, but are not limited to caution-
ary issues.
1.3 Management review
1.3.1 Senior management shall ensure that the quality
and product safety management systems are
reviewed at least annually or more frequently if
changes occur. Such reviews shall contain, at least,
results of audits, customer feedback, process com-
pliance and product conformity, status of preven-
tive and corrective actions, follow up actions from
previous management reviews, changes that could
affect the product safety and quality management
systems and recommendations for improvement.
1.3.2 This review shall include the evaluation of meas-
ures for the control of the quality and product
safety management system and for the continu-
ous improvement process.
2 Quality and product safety Management System
2.1 Risk Management/HACCP
2.1.1 The basis of the companys product safety control
KO n 2 system shall be a fully implemented, systematic
and comprehensive risk management system. For
food, the company subject to the IFS Broker audit
shall ensure that the suppliers food safety control
system is a fully implemented, systematic and
comprehensive HACCP system, based upon Codex
Alimentarius principles. For all products, it shall
take into account any legal requirements of the
product and destination countries.
2.1.2 There shall be a risk assessment process in place
related to specific location(s) and shall include:
a. A flow diagram encompassing all relevant
levels of the broker services
b. Risk description
c. Measures to control the identified risk
d. The steps referred to under points a)c) shall
be documented.
2.1.3 The risk assessment shall be regularly reviewed,
at least annually, and/or when any modification is
made to the services; if necessary the risk assess-
ment shall be revised/updated.The risk assess-
ment shall also consider issues in relation to the
presence of, risk of presence of GMO and allergens.
2.1.4 The risk assessment shall be carried out by
person(s) with adequate knowledge of the ser-
vices and products involved. If this knowledge is
inadequate, the company shall take appropriate
steps to ensure the risk assessment is undertaken
by competent person(s).
IFS, October 2013


Major/ Comments
NA
2.2 Documentation requirements
2.2.1 The system for product safety and quality man-
agement shall be documented and shall be
retained in one location (product safety and
quality manual or electronic documented system).
2.2.2 A documented procedure shall exist for the
control of documents and their amendments.
2.2.3 All documents shall be clearly legible, unambigu-
ous and comprehensive.They shall be available to
relevant personnel at all times.
2.2.4 All documents which are necessary for compli-
ance with the product requirements shall be
available in their latest version.
2.3 Record keeping
2.3.1 All relevant records, necessary for the product
requirements shall be complete, detailed and
maintained and shall be available on request.
2.3.2 Records shall be legible and genuine.They shall be
maintained in a way that subsequent revision or
amendment is prohibited. If records are documented
electronically, a system shall be in place to ensure
only authorized personnel have access to produce or
amend these records (e.g. by the use of a password).
2.3.3 All records shall be kept in accordance with legal
requirements. Where customer requirements are
in place, these shall be met, or if no such require-
ments exist, for a minimum of one year after the
specified shelf life. For products which have no
shelf life, the duration of record keeping shall be
justified and this justification shall be documented.
2.3.4 Records shall be securely stored and easily
accessible.
3 Resource Management
3.1 All personnel performing work that affects product
safety, legality and quality shall have the required
competence by education, work experience and/or
training, commensurate with their role, based on
risk assessment.
3.2 The company shall implement documented
training programs with respect to the product
requirements and the training needs of the
employees.The company shall have in place a
training programme matrix in relation to job
description and training requirements.
4 Planning and Services Process
4.1 Contract agreement
4.1.1 The requirements which are defined between the
contract partners shall be established, reviewed
and agreed upon concerning their acceptability
before a Supply Agreement is concluded. All
clauses related to quality and product safety shall
be communicated to and understood by each
relevant department.
IFS, October 2013

Major/ Comments
NA
4.1.2 Changes of existing contractual agreements shall
be documented and communicated between the
contract partners.
4.1.3 Specific quality and safety requirements of
customers shall be communicated to and under-
stood by the supplier of the company.
4.2 Specifications
4.2.1 Specifications shall be available and in place for
all products.They shall be up to date, unambigu-
ous and in compliance with legal requirements of
the destination country(ies) and also with cus-
tomer requirements.
4.2.2 The customer specification shall be complied with.
KO n 3
4.2.3 Where required by customers, product specifica-
tions shall be formally agreed.
4.2.4 There shall be a procedure for the creation, the
modification and approval of specifications for all
products and parts of the services, which shall in-
clude the preliminary acceptance of the customer,
if specifications have been agreed with customers.
4.3 Product development/Product modification/Modification of production processes
4.3.1 A procedure for product development shall be in
place, which takes into account the risk assessment
principles for all products (and HACCP system for
food products).The procedure shall ensure that all
existing and new products are designed to meet
legal and customer requirements.This procedure
shall also take into account patents, if applicable.
4.3.2 Product formulation, manufacturing processes, pro-
cess parameters and the fulfilment of product re-
quirements shall be established and shall have been
ensured by factory trials and/or product testing.
4.3.3 Where relevant, shelf life tests or adequate
processes shall be carried out and consideration
given to product formulation, packaging, manu-
facturing and declared conditions to establish
minimum durability of the product.
4.3.4 In relation to food product development, the
company shall ensure organoleptic assessments
are undertaken and results of these assessments
are reviewed and acted upon.
4.3.5 A process shall be in place to ensure that labelling
of all existing and new products complies with
current legislation of destination country and
customer requirements.
4.3.6 Recommendations for preparation and/or use of
the products shall be established. Where appropri-
ate, recommendations for use shall relate to
consumer satisfaction and consumer safety. Where
specified, customer requirements shall be included.
IFS, October 2013


Major/ Comments
NA
4.3.7 The progress and results of product development
shall be properly recorded.
4.4 Purchasing
4.4.1 The company shall control purchasing processes

to ensure that all sourced materials and services,
which have an impact on product safety and
quality, conform to requirements.
4.4.2 There shall be a procedure for approval and

monitoring of suppliers.
4.4.3 The approval and monitoring procedure shall

contain clear assessment criteria such as: audits,
certificates of analysis, supplier reliability and
complaints, as well as required performance
standards based on risk assessment. If an IFS
standard exists for the product category (IFS Food,
IFS HPC, IFS PACsecure), the supplier of the (food,
HPC or packaging) product who works for the
company shall be certified according to IFS, unless
the customer has expressively accepted other
conditions.
4.4.4 The company shall have a (internal or external)

risk based system in place, to monitor the sourc-
ing areas of purchased products.
4.4.5 An assessment of suppliers shall be made regu-

larly to identify and control risks.There shall be a
record of all reviews and actions taken as a
consequence of the assessment.
4.4.6 The purchased products shall be checked in

accordance with the existing specifications and,
risk based, with their authenticity.The schedule of
these checks shall, as a minimum, take into account
the following criteria: product requirements and
supplier status (according to its assessment).
4.4.7 In case of private labels, a supplier approval

system in accordance with customer requirements
shall exist for suppliers of products.
4.5 Product packaging
4.5.1 The company shall ensure that detailed specifica-

tions exist for all packaging materials and that
they comply with the current legislation of the
destination country(ies) of the product.
4.5.2 Where packaging material could compromise

product safety, declaration of conformity shall be
provided by suppliers confirming compliance to
legislative requirements. In the event that no
specific legal requirements are applicable, evi-
dence shall be available to demonstrate that
packaging material is suitable for use.This applies
for packaging material which could have an
adverse effect on raw materials/components,
semi-processed and finished products.
IFS, October 2013

Major/ Comments
NA
4.5.3 Where product packaging change is required by
the customer or legislation, the company shall
ensure the packaging of the product is controlled
by the supplier and that product meets legislative
and/or customer requirements.The use of
correct packaging shall be regularly checked and
checks shall be documented by the supplier.The
company shall ensure these checks are under-
taken.
4.5.4 Where product labelling change is required by the
customer or legislation, the company shall ensure
the labelling of the product is amended by the
supplier to meet this change. Labelling informa-
tion shall be legible, indelible and shall comply
with agreed customer product specifications (in-
cluding e.g. shelf life). Labelling shall be checked
regularly and checks shall be documented.
4.6 Traceability (including GMOs and allergens)
4.6.1 A traceability system shall be in place which
KO n 4 enables the full identification of products and the
labelling of the products shall be done in a way to
allow full traceability.The traceability system, in-
cluded records, shall ensure full traceability from
the supplier (defined to batch quantity) until the
delivery to the customer.
4.6.2 The traceability system shall be tested on a
periodic basis at least annually and each time
traceability system changes.The test shall verify
upstream and downstream traceability (from
delivered products to raw materials/components,
and vice versa), including quantity checking.Test
results shall be recorded.
4.6.3 If required by the customer, the company shall
ensure that the supplier has identified samples
representative of the manufacturing lot, has
stored them appropriately and has kept these until
their expiry date or, if required, for a longer
period.
The company shall obtain and retain a list of all
manufactured lots covered by the broker services.
4.7 Logistics activities
4.7.1 Where a company contracts a third-party transport
and/or storage service provider, all the relevant
requirements to ensure product safety and quality
shall be clearly defined in the respective contract
or the service provider shall be subject to IFS
Logistics requirements.
4.7.2 If the company has its own storage area and/or
own transportation services and would like to
include them into the scope of the IFS certifica-
tion, then these processes shall be certified
according to IFS Logistics (combined audit with
IFS Logistics check list), unless the customer has
accepted other conditions.
IFS, October 2013


Major/ Comments
NA
5 Measurements, Analysis, Improvements
5.1 Internal audits
5.1.1 Effective internal audits shall be conducted

KO n 5 according to a defined agreed audit program and
shall cover at least all requirements of the IFS
Standard. Scope and frequency of internal audits
shall be determined by risk assessment.
5.1.2 Internal audits of activities which are critical to

product safety, specifications and own services
shall be carried out at least once a year.
5.1.3 The auditors shall be competent and independent

from the audited department.
5.1.4 Audit results shall be communicated to the senior

management and to responsible persons of
concerned department. Necessary corrective
actions and a schedule for implementation shall
be determined and documented and communi-
cated to every relevant person.
5.1.5 It shall be documented how and when the correc-

tive actions resulting from the internal audits shall
be verified. Records of verification actions shall be
available.
5.2 Product analysis
5.2.1 There shall be product analysis/testing procedures

ensuring that all specified product requirements
are met, including legal requirements and specifi-
cations. Microbiological, physical and chemical
analysis required for that purpose shall be
performed internally and/or subcontracted.
5.2.2 Where special analysis are demanded by the

KO n 6 customer, these shall be defined in a testing plan
and performed according to the defined require-
ments.Test results shall be available at the
company site.
5.2.3 Analyses, which are relevant for product safety,

shall preferably be performed by laboratories
having appropriate accredited programs/methods
(ISO 17025). If the analyses are performed by a
factory internal or a laboratory not having appro-
priate accredited programs/methods, the results
shall be verified on a regular basis by laboratories
accredited on these programs/methods
(ISO 17025).
5.2.4 A product sampling program, based on risk

assessment, shall be implemented, which
covers the broker services, the production
process of the suppliers, incl. raw materials/
components, semi-processed products as well as
packaging materials.The test results shall be
documented.
IFS, October 2013

Major/ Comments
NA
5.2.5 Results of analysis shall be evaluated promptly.

In case of any unsatisfactory results, the company
shall assess the significance of these results,
shall inform the customer accordingly and
appropriate corrective measures shall always be
implemented.The analytical results shall be
reviewed regularly in order to identify trends. In
the event that trend analysis indicates potential
issues which may occur, the company shall take
corrective actions.
5.2.6 Based on any internal or external information

on product risks which may have an impact on
product safety and/or quality (incl. adulteration
and fraud), the company shall update its control
plan and/or take any appropriate measure to
control impact on finished products.
5.3 Product quarantine and product release
5.3.1 As part of the companys incident management

procedure (crisis management system), there shall
be an assurance that the supplier has systems in
place which identify and control non conforming
products and that robust quarantine (blocking/
hold) procedures are in place in the event that non
conforming product is identified.The company
shall ensure that only products and materials
conforming to product requirements are delivered
to the customer.
5.4 Management of complaints from authorities and customers
5.4.1 A system shall be in place for the management of

product complaints.
5.4.2 All complaints shall be assessed by competent

staff. Where it is justified, appropriate actions shall
be taken as soon as possible.
5.4.3 Complaints shall be analysed with a view to

implementing preventive actions which avoid the
recurrence of the non-conformity.
5.4.4 The results of complaint data analysis shall be

made known to the relevant responsible persons
and to the senior management.
5.5 Management of incidents, product withdrawal, product recall
5.5.1 A documented procedure shall be defined for

management of incidents and of potential emer-
gency situations that impact product safety,
legality and quality.This procedure shall be
implemented and maintained.This includes as a
minimum: the nomination and training of a crisis
team, an alert contact list, sources of legal advice
(if necessary), contacts availability, customer
information, and a communication plan, including
information to consumers.
IFS, October 2013


Major/ Comments
NA
5.5.2 There shall be an effective procedure for the

KO n 7 withdrawal and recall of all products, which
ensures that involved customers are immediately
informed.This procedure shall include a clear
assignment of responsibilities.
5.5.3 Updated emergency contact details (such as

names and phone numbers of suppliers, custom-
ers and competent authorities) shall be available.
A person of the company, who has the authority
to initiate the incident management process, shall
be permanently available.
5.5.4 The feasibility, effectiveness and timeliness of

implementation of the withdrawal procedure shall
be subject to regular internal testing, carried out at
least once a year.This test shall be carried out in a
manner to assess the effectiveness of implemen-
tation and operation of the procedure.
5.6 Management of non-conformities and non conforming products
5.6.1 A procedure shall exist for the management of all

non-conforming products.
5.6.2 The procedure for the management of non-

conforming products shall include, as a mini-
mum:
isolation/quarantine procedures
hazard analysis and assessment of associated
risks
identification (e.g. labelling)
decision about the further use (e.g. release,
rework/post treatment, blocking, quarantine,
rejection/disposal)
information about process chain
clearly identified staff responsibilities.
5.6.3 The rules of the procedure for the management of

non-conforming products shall be understood by
all relevant employees.
5.6.4 Where non-conformities are identified, the

company shall ensure that immediate corrections
shall be taken at the responsible manufacturing
site and that product requirements are complied
with.
5.6.5 Out of specification, final packaged products or

packaging materials shall not be placed in the
market under the label concerned. Exceptions
shall be agreed in writing with the contract
partners.
5.7 Corrective actions
5.7.1 A procedure shall be in place for the recording

and analysis of the non-conformities with the
objective to avoid recurrences by preventive
actions and/or corrective actions.
IFS, October 2013

Major/ Comments
NA
5.7.2 Corrective actions shall be clearly formulated,
KO n 8 documented and undertaken, as soon as possible
to avoid further occurrence of non-conformity.The
responsibilities and the timescales for corrective
action shall be clearly defined.The documentation
shall be securely stored, and easily accessible.
5.7.3 The performance of the implemented corrective
actions shall be documented and the effectiveness
shall be checked.
6 Food/product defense assessment
6.1 The company shall ensure that suppliers respon-
sibilities for product defense are clearly defined.
6.2 The company shall ensure that suppliers have
performed and documented a product defense
hazard analysis and assessment of associated
risks. Based on this assessment, and based on the
legal requirements, areas critical to security shall
be identified.
IFS, October 2013

CONTACT DETAILS OF THE IFS OFFICES
GERMANY | BERLIN BRAZIL | DOURADOS

IFS Management GmbH Representante IFS Brasil
Am Weidendamm 1A Caroline Nowak
D-10117 Berlin BR-79824 Dourados, MS
Phone: +49 (0) 30 72 62 50 74 Phone: +55 (67) 81 51 45 60
Fax: +49 (0) 30 72 62 50 79 E-Mail: [email protected]
CHINA | HEFEI
FRANCE | PARIS StarFarm
IFS Office Paris Room 2301, C building,
FCD Fortune Plaza No. 278 Suixi Road, 230041,
12, rue Euler Hefei, Anhui, China
F-75008 Paris Phone: +86 (0) 55 15 66 60 69
Phone: +33 (0)1 44 43 99 16 Fax: +86 (0) 55 15 68 13 76
Fax: +33 (0)1 47 20 53 53 E-Mail: [email protected]
E-Mail: [email protected] [email protected]
ITALY | MILAN CANADA | TORONTO

IFS Office Milan PAC The Packaging Association Canada
Federdistribuzione 1 Concorde Gate, Suites 607
Via Albricci 8 CA-Toronto ON, M3C 3N6
I-20122 Milano Phone: +1 41 64 90 78 60
Phone: +39 (0) 2 89 07 51 50 E-Mail: [email protected]
Fax: +39 (0) 26 55 11 69
E-Mail: [email protected] USA | ST. LOUIS
IFS North America
POLAND | WARSAW 1610 Des Peres Road, Suite 150
IFS Office Central & Eastern Europe USA-St. Louis, MO 63131
ul. Serwituty 25 Phone: +1 31 46 86 46 10
PL-02-233 Warsaw Fax: +1 31 46 86 46 02
Phone: +48 6 01 95 77 01 E-Mail: [email protected]
IFS, October 2013

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IFS Broker

Standard for auditing

The Standard owner of the present document is:

IFS Management GmbH

Managing Director: StephanTromp

Bank: Berliner Sparkasse

The IFS Broker is available online via:

Or by Mail, Fax and E-mail:

Phone: +49-(0) 30-72 62 50-74

Standard for auditing

Members of the IFS International Technical Committee

IFS is also pleased to acknowledge the helpful contributions provided by the

IFS, October 2013

Ksenia Otto IFS Office Manager

As part of the review process of the Standard, test audit has

ObstTrautner GmbH, Grfenberg, Germany

IFS, October 2013

1 The history of the International Featured Standards

4 Scope of the audit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

5 The certification process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

IFS, October 2013

5.7.3.2 Translation of the audit report .......................... 28

6 Awarding the certificate ................................ 33

7 Distribution and storage of the audit report ............. 36

9 Appeal and complaints procedure ...................... 36

10 Ownership and usage of the IFS Broker Logo ........... 37

11 Review of the Standard ................................ 38

12 IFS Integrity Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

IFS, October 2013

Part 2: IFS Broker 2 requirements

1 Senior Management Responsibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

2 Quality and product safety Management System . . . . . . . . 50

4 Planning and Services Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

5 Measurements, Analysis, Improvements ................ 56

6 Food/product defense assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

IFS, October 2013

Part 3: Requirements for Accreditation Bodies, Certification

1 Requirements for the Accreditation Bodies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

2 Requirements for the Certification Bodies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

3 Requirements for IFS Broker auditors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

IFS, October 2013

Part 4: Reporting, auditXpressTM Software and IFS Audit portal

2 auditXpressTM Software ................................ 82

3 The IFS Audit portal and the IFS Database

IFS, October 2013

Part 1: Audit Protocol

1 The history of the International Featured

Supplier audits have been a permanent feature of retailers systems and

The associated members of the German retail federation Handelsver-

It is the aim of most retailers and producers to have transparency over

IFS, October 2013

Broker is to ensure broker services compliance and to check how bro-

In order to prevent brokers, trading agencies and importers from being

After 3 years of implementation of version 1, experience and recom-

The IFS Broker Standard is one of the Standards belonging to the

The Standard is applicable for trading of food products, household and

IFS, October 2013

The fundamental objectives of IFS Broker are:

2.1 Purpose and contents of the audit protocol