No TÜV SÜD Certification Mark
Certification:
Product certification in the meaning of the accreditation including management-system components / Voluntary assessment
Basis for Certification (certification standard):
IFS BROKER Standard in the currently valid version (www.ifs-certification.com)
Standard-/Normgeber:
IFS Management GmbH
Es wird kein TÜV SÜD-Prüfzeichen vergeben. Den zertifizierten Unternehmen ist es gestattet, das IFS Prüfzeichen gem. den Vorgaben des Standardgebers zu verwenden.
What does the standard IFS BROKER cover?
The IFS BROKER standard defines the requirements for an organisation's food safety processes. These requirements include, but are not limited to:
- Implementation of a quality and food safety management system
Planning, implementation, assessment, corrective actions
Hazard assessments plus control elements - Resource management skills
Human resources, facilities and equipment, training - Intensive planning and system for the evaluation of suppliers
Suitability of packaging materials
Product specifications
Correct product labelling (allergens, correctness, scope) - Measurements, analyses, improvements
Emergency responses and control, evaluation of suppliers
What does “certification” according to IFS BROKER by TÜV SÜD Management Service GmbH mean?
- The customer has submitted to voluntary assessment (audit) according to defined criteria (certification standard).
- A certificate is only issued if the assessment (audit) does not reveal any major nonconformities with the requirements of the certification standard.
- The certificates are valid for a restricted period of time. Interested parties can check the validity of individual certificates in the certificate database of TÜV SÜD Management Service GmbH.
- To maintain certificate validity, the certificate holder must annually complete an announced audit with a positive result.
- Unannounced audits are possible in specific cases.
- According to the standard owner’s requirements, communication of certification to IFS BROKER is restricted to B2B communication. Communication to consumers is not permitted.
How do we audit?
Independent and qualified experts (auditors) apply the following auditing techniques:
- Document review:
Review of documentation such as documented procedures, work instructions
Inspection of recipes/formulations and specifications
Evaluation of food labelling
Specific traceability tests
Evaluation of analysis results
- On-site audit
Interviews with the employees of the organization
e.g. department specific tasks such as Purchasing and Quality Management
What is beyond the scope of certification according to standard IFS BROKER?
Audits are always based on sampling. Given this, it is impossible to inspect every single product or every single production process. TÜV SÜD certification thus cannot give a 100% guarantee that all food products of a certified company are free from nonconformities or that the organisation meets the criteria of the standard at all times, even though this is one of the key objectives of the IFS BROKER standard.
