Verstegen Spices & Sauces B.V. is qualified for the latest version of the IFS, version 7. This version is a collaboration of three retail federations of Germany, France and Italy.
These refer to basic objectives. Please, read on for more information.
The affiliated members of the German retail federation – Hauptverband des Deutschen Einzelhandels (HDE) – and its French counterpart – Fédération des Entreprises du Commerce et de la Distribution (FCD) – have written a standard for the food safety and quality of private label products. This standard is called the International Food Standard (IFS), which is intended to assess food safety and quality systems according to a uniform approach. This standard applies to all processing stages of food production.
The standard is largely the same as the BRC standard. The IFS standard goes a bit further than the BRC standard on a number of parts. The structure of the IFS system is: quality management system, management responsibility, management of resources, realization of the product and finally measurement, analysis and improvement.
The basic objectives of the IFS are
– setting up a general quality standard with a uniform assessment system;
– working with accredited certification bodies and qualified auditors;
– ensuring comparability and transparency throughout the chain;
– reducing costs and time for both suppliers and retailers.