Overview of IFS Food Standards

A retailer in Germany or France tells your company it will list your products only if you hold IFS Food certification. That single commercial condition explains why thousands of food manufacturers, packers, and processors around the world work to this standard. IFS Food is not a law, and no government issues it. Private retailers and brand owners require it as proof that a supplier can produce safe, legal food consistently, batch after batch.

Owned by IFS Management GmbH and benchmarked by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), IFS Food gives auditors a common checklist and scoring system for judging a site. Under the current version, IFS Food version 8, published in 2023, an audit looks at management responsibility, quality and food safety systems, resource management, production processes, measurement and improvement, and food defence. Your result is not simply pass or fail. Scores matter, and some requirements can stop certification outright.

Where IFS came from and who uses it

German retail association HDE and French retail association FCD created the first IFS standard in the early 2000s because each retailer had been auditing suppliers in its own way. Suppliers faced repeated, slightly different audits for the same factory. A shared standard cut that duplication and gave retailers comparable reports.

Use has spread well beyond those two countries. Manufacturers supplying European retail chains are the core audience, but sites in other regions also certify when their customers sell into Europe or want a GFSI-benchmarked scheme. IFS runs several standards besides Food, covering areas such as logistics, broker operations, and household and personal care products. Food remains the flagship and the one most production sites encounter.

What certification actually signals

Certification signals that an independent certification body, using accredited auditors, found your system working on the days of the audit and scored it highly enough to award a certificate. Buyers read more than the certificate itself. Many ask for the audit report, the score, and the corrective action plan, because those documents show where your site is strong and where it struggled.

How scoring and levels work

Auditors grade each requirement, typically with A, B, C, or D. Full compliance earns an A. A B indicates near compliance with a point to improve. C means part of the requirement is not implemented, and D means the requirement is not implemented. Points from those grades add up to a total percentage score.

Two outcome levels are well established for IFS Food. Sites scoring below the higher threshold can achieve Foundation level, while sites reaching around 75 percent or more can achieve Higher level, provided no knock-out requirement has failed. Buyers notice the difference. A Higher level result suggests a mature system, not a site that scraped through.

• A: full compliance
• B: almost full compliance, improvement identified
• C: only part of the requirement implemented
• D: requirement not implemented

Scores are not an academic exercise. A low score in one audit can lead a customer to shorten certificate acceptance, request a follow-up audit, or place new business elsewhere until performance improves.

Knock-out requirements

Certain requirements carry KO status, short for knock-out. Fail one and you fail the audit, regardless of your total percentage. KO requirements cover fundamentals a safe site cannot compromise on, such as senior management responsibility, monitoring of critical control points, internal audits, traceability, and corrective action.

Treat KO items as non-negotiable in daily operation, not as audit-day topics. If traceability cannot be demonstrated quickly and completely, or if monitoring records for a critical control point are missing, a strong performance elsewhere will not rescue the result. Good sites build routine checks around KO requirements throughout the year so the evidence is produced as a by-product of normal work.

What an IFS audit covers day to day

Expect an auditor to walk production areas, interview operators, review records, and test systems live. Traceability exercises, allergen controls, cleaning verification, foreign body detection, personnel hygiene, and supplier approval all come under scrutiny. Auditors also examine how you handle complaints, withdrawals and recalls, incidents, and deviations.

Preparation that only tidies paperwork fails this kind of audit. Operators are asked what they do, why they do it, and what happens when something goes wrong. Answers need to match your written procedures and your records. When those three align — procedure, practice, and record — findings become minor. When they diverge, auditors dig deeper.

Unannounced audits

IFS offers and in some programmes requires unannounced audit options. A site that runs to standard every day handles an unannounced visit calmly. A site that relies on a pre-audit clean-up does not. Even if your audit is announced, working as if it were not is sound practice.

Costs and benefits deserve a clear-eyed look at this stage. Certification brings audit fees, consultant or training costs where you use them, staff time, and sometimes capital spending on the factory itself. Benefits arrive as retained contracts, access to tenders that require a GFSI-benchmarked certificate, fewer duplicated customer audits, and lower recall risk when systems genuinely improve. Weigh both sides with your main customers in mind: ask which schemes and levels they accept, how long they expect certification to take, and whether an unannounced audit option is preferred. That conversation prevents a common waste — working hard toward a scope, level, or audit style that your biggest buyer does not actually want.

Key points

• IFS Food is a private, GFSI-benchmarked standard owned by IFS Management GmbH, created by German and French retail associations.
• Certification is scored, not just pass or fail, with A to D grades building a percentage result.
• Around 75 percent or more supports Higher level under the current version; lower passing scores give Foundation level.
• KO requirements can fail an audit on their own, however strong the rest of the score.
• Auditors test procedure, practice, and records together, including live traceability and operator interviews.