IFS Food Safety Checks
From the beginning of March 2019 the IFS will reintroduce unannounced IFS Food Checks. These IFS Food Safety Checks are intended to support the inspection of food-producing companies in the areas of HACCP, hygiene and pest control during their daily operating routines. The aim of these additional, unannounced inspections is to ensure continuous food safety and/or product safety and product quality.
During these food checks not all criteria of the IFS standard are covered; only a part is included in the checklist. The criteria of IFS Food Version 6.1 and IFS Wholesale Version 2 served as a basis.
IFS Food Checks are of particular interest to companies that already have unannounced audits conducted or plan to do so in the future. According to IFS Management GmbH, the combination of announced audits and unannounced IFS Food Safety Checks is equivalent to unannounced audits. The maximum duration of an IFS Food Safety Check is one day.
Registration for IFS Food Safety Checks is possible from 1 March 2019.
These are the requirements for companies:
- Valid IFS certificate
- Minimum certificate duration of nine months
- Documents of the last IFS certification audit are stored in the IFS database.
Please find further information on this and on how to register and download the checklists on the IFS website.
We will assist you and your company in questions concerning quality management in the food industry, and particularly, with the reintroduction of the IFS standard.