IFS Food
IFS Food Certification Preparation
IFS Food is a GFSI-recognised standard for food manufacturers and companies that pack loose food products. It's the entry ticket to the shelves of major European retail chains — especially in the German, French and Italian markets.
What is IFS Food?
IFS (International Featured Standards) was developed by German and French retail chains as a single requirement for their private-label suppliers. Today, alongside BRCGS, IFS Food is the most sought-after food-safety certificate in Europe: without it, entry into major retail chains is practically impossible.
IFS differs from ISO standards in its scoring system: the auditor rates every checklist requirement (A/B/C/D), and the overall percentage determines the certificate level (Foundation or Higher). KO (knock-out) requirements carry particular weight — failing any one of them means failing the entire audit. The standard also allows for unannounced audits.
Implementation phases
The real phases we guide every project through — from preparation to the certificate, which comes only at the end:
Internal Audit and Mock (Pre-)Audit
Preparation for IFS follows the logic of the standard's own checklist — from management down to the production line. Not sure whether you already meet these requirements? Check with the short self-assessment at the bottom of this page.
Gap analysis against the IFS checklist
We assess the current state across every chapter of the standard and the KO requirements; you get a report with priorities and a realistic timeline for the audit.
HACCP and prerequisite programmes
IFS requires a full Codex-based HACCP system and organised PRP programmes — hygiene, maintenance, pest control, allergen management and glass/plastic control.
Management system and food-safety culture
Policy, responsibilities, internal reviews and — an explicit requirement — a food-safety-culture development plan with measurable activities.
Food defense and food fraud
A vulnerability assessment for intentional contamination (food defense) and raw-material fraud (food fraud), with mitigation plans — mandatory IFS chapters.
Traceability and incident management
A two-way traceability test within 4 hours, recall and withdrawal procedures, and complaint management.
Training and production practice
Role-based staff training, hygiene rules, foreign-body control and production conditions the auditor inspects in detail.
Internal audit and mock (pre-)audit
A complete internal review against the checklist and an audit simulation — we close findings before the real auditor arrives.
The path to certification
An IFS audit differs from ISO certification — every requirement is scored.
The prerequisite for everything: the system is implemented and applied in practice — every requirement of the standard met, the internal audit carried out and the management review completed.
The audit is carried out by a body approved by IFS; the appointment may be announced or unannounced (at least every third audit must be unannounced).
The auditor scores every requirement (A/B/C/D) with a mandatory, detailed walk-through of production — at least a third of the audit time.
≥75% earns Foundation level, ≥95% earns Higher level. Failing a KO requirement or a Major nonconformity means failing the audit.
The IFS certificate is valid for 12 months — the system is maintained continuously, not as a one-off campaign.
Benefits of Adopting the Standard
IFS is the standard requirement for private-label suppliers in Europe.
One certificate is accepted by every major customer that requires GFSI recognition — without multiple audits.
Food fraud and food defense assessments protect against risks a classic HACCP system doesn't cover.
Opens the German, French and Italian markets — the biggest export opportunities for food producers from the region.
An illustrative, typical scenario we often hear from clients — it does not represent a specific, named client.
“A retail chain asked us for an IFS Food certificate and we thought it was just paperwork for them. During the preparation we carried out a food defence risk assessment (intentional contamination) and a food fraud check on suppliers for the first time — things we had never even thought about, and today they are part of our routine controls.”
— a common scenario among our clients
Related standards
IFS is built on the HACCP foundation, which it requires in full. ISO 22000 / FSSC 22000 is an alternative GFSI route — the choice depends on which market and which customers you're targeting (IFS dominates continental Europe, BRCGS the UK). ISO 9001 covers the quality and processes of the whole organisation.
IFS Food training — from a basic understanding of the standard to internal auditor training. Delivered at your premises, online or as a combination of both.
FAQ about IFS Food
What are KO (knock-out) requirements?
Ten key IFS requirements — including management responsibility, the CCP monitoring system, staff hygiene, traceability and corrective actions. A D score on any KO requirement means an automatic audit failure.
How long is the IFS certificate valid?
12 months — the audit is repeated every year, and at least every third one must be unannounced.
IFS or ISO 22000 — which to choose?
If your customers are European retail chains, they'll ask for a GFSI standard: IFS (continental Europe) or BRCGS (UK). ISO 22000 is an excellent systemic foundation, and through FSSC 22000 it also achieves GFSI recognition.
How long does IFS preparation take?
With a functioning HACCP system, usually 4 to 8 months, depending on the state of the facility and its documentation. For large systems — over 500 employees, multiple locations or an integrated system of several standards — a project realistically runs beyond a year; we handle those clients too.
What is food-safety culture?
IFS requires a documented plan for developing employee awareness and behaviour around food safety — with objectives, activities and progress measurement.
How much does the IFS Food standard implementation cost?
There is no fixed price that applies to everyone — the cost depends on the organisation's field of activity, its size and number of employees, the chosen standard and the current state of the system. Send us a short description of your organisation and we will prepare a free, tailored estimate.
Standards that fit together like a honeycomb
Each standard keeps its own shape, but together they form a single solid, integrated management system (IMS) — with no gaps or overlaps. Click a hexagon to open that standard.
More about the integrated management system
An integrated management system (IMS) combines two or more ISO standards — for example IFS Food with ISO 9001 or ISO 14001 — into one shared framework of documentation, objectives and internal reviews, instead of each standard living in its own parallel procedure.
A single structure (the High-Level Structure — HLS) shared by every modern ISO standard. Thanks to it, the quality policy, risk management, internal audits and management review can be common to several standards at once.
Each standard on its own addresses one part of the business — quality, environment, safety, information. When an organisation introduces several of them, separate systems quickly duplicate the same documentation and the same auditors.
Less duplicated procedure work, simpler management, stronger process oversight, more efficient use of resources and easier preparation for a combined certification audit.
IFS Food can be implemented on its own or as part of an integrated system — the decision depends on how many standards you're targeting and whether you're introducing them at once or gradually.
Check your organization's readiness
Answer a few questions and receive an indicative assessment of your organization's current level of readiness for IFS Food.
This self-assessment provides an indicative readiness result only. It does not constitute certification, an official audit, or formal confirmation of compliance.
The EU, the US and other markets
IFS Food is the same standard wherever you certify it — what differs is the designation, the accreditation behind the certificate and what your customers ask for.
In the European Union the standard is adopted with an EN prefix, and what your buyer in the Netherlands, Germany or France looks at is not the prefix but the accreditation behind the certificate: a body accredited by a signatory of the international recognition arrangement (Global Accreditation Cooperation, formerly IAF) is recognised in other markets too. What EU partners and EU regulation expect is on the page about the EU market.
For companies with customers in the United States — supplier audits, security questionnaires and how ISO sits alongside SOC 2 — see the page about the US market.
Wherever your customer is, we run the project remotely in English — over Teams, WhatsApp or Viber, with documentation and records in English — and on site when that is easier.
Montenegro and the region
When people ask about a IFS Food certificate, they mean the confirmation issued by an independent accredited certification body to an organisation whose system complies with every requirement of this standard.
Our core activity is standards implementation and rollout: we prepare your organisation so the certification audit goes without surprises, and we explain terms like "IFS Food certification" and "IFS Food certificate" because that's exactly how clients search for them. What certification, accreditation, IAF and surveillance audits involve — read the Certification / ISO Certificate page, and about tender designations on the ISO Standards in Tenders page.
Montenegro is where we work from: our consultants are based in Podgorica, Budva and Bijelo Polje, documentation and training come in Montenegrin or in English, and the certificate itself is issued by an independent accredited certification body — not by us. We work on site in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, North Macedonia, Albania and Kosovo as well — more about what we do in Montenegro.
Some of our references
More than 400 organisations in Montenegro and the region have gone through implementation with us — from banks and public bodies to manufacturing, IT, laboratories and hospitality.
These are only some of our clients. More about us →
Request a free consultation
We will assess the scope of work and propose a realistic plan and budget for your organisation. Call us or send an inquiry — we reply within 24 hours.