Declaration for IFS Version5

Dear < customer > ,

The retail parties are the main users of IFS and BRC certification services. To protect their private labels retailers endorse these standards. Although many companies are certified, the total number of product complaints is still to high. Therefore, the standard owners have launched an integrity programme to improve the level of certification and to assure the added value of the BRC and IFS certificates. By means of this letter we would like to inform you about the changes in policy of BRC and IFS. We hope that this information will help you in preparing the upcoming audits!

Scope of the audit

The production processes are leading in determining the products or product groups for the scope of the audit. Different production processes result in different products or product groups if the distinctive process steps are relevant for the food safety. Only the products or product groups that are produced during the audit will be part of the scope. This also implicates that for example for seasonal products an additional audit for scope extension might be necessary if during the initial or repeat audit not all products or product groups are produced.

It is strongly advised that for the planning of the certification audit it should be taken into account that all products or product groups that should be in the scope of the audit have to be produced during the audit. If this requirement is not met, or during the audit is becomes clear to the auditor that there are additional products or product groups, the initial scope might be limited.

For example:

• A fruit and vegetable company produces peaches and citrus. The season for peaches is from May to September, for citrus this is October to April. The processes are different from a food safety point of view.
• In this example two audits are necessary to have citrus and peaches in the scope. One during the peaches season and one during the citrus season.

Management Reponsibility

The IFS and BRC standards are developing more attention on management responsibility towards food safety. This means that the ISACert auditor will put focus on the implementation of the applicable clauses during the audit. Parts of the standards that are related to management responsibility are complaints of customers and authorities, corrective actions, supplier management, follow up of previous audit results, recall and product withdrawal and training of personnel.

Complaint Management

Customer complaints are a valuable source of information to evaluate and improve your food safety system. For an effective evaluation of the customer complaints and your subsequent follow up, the ISACert auditor will ask you to prepare an information sheet in advance about last years complaints.

Implementation of corrective actions

In the case of a repeat audit the implementation of all corrective actions resulting non conformities, and deviations for IFS, noticed during the previous audit will be evaluated in detail by the auditor. If the corrective actions are not completely implemented, the result might be a Major or KO scoring and subsequent immediate withdrawal of the certificate.

ISACert data analysis

Data analysis of all ISACert IFS and BRC audits in 2008 reveals that requirements concerning packaging materials and equipment, protection and handling of glass, microbiological shelf life testing and the traceability system are often evaluated as non conform. In order to prepare for the certification audit, special attention might be given to the related requirements.