Version 7 of the International Featured Standards (IFS) Standard will be mandatory as of 1 July 2021. In this version of the standard, 11 new items have been added as requirements. We explain these items below:
Article 1.2.6
The requirement to notify the certification body of significant changes within 3 working days has been added.
What is meant by the phrase “significant changes” are as follows: Change in the legal entity name of the company, change of address, product recall, recall and/or withdrawal of the product due to food safety and food fraud; a notification and/or penalty issued by the legal authority.
Article 1.4.2:
The requirement to document the management review meeting, the requirement to evaluate follow-up activities from the previous meeting, any changes that may affect the food safety and quality management system, and the requirement to review the improvement decisions and actions taken at the meeting have been added.
Item 4.4.6:
Requirements on the control of outsourced processes (product processing and/or primary packaging and/or labelling) have been added.
Added the requirement to document how the outsourced process will be controlled and, if documentation of the control is requested by the customer, evidence that the customer has been informed and that this has been accepted by the customer.
Item 4.4.7:
The requirement to have a written agreement covering outsourced processes, describing all arrangements made in connection with it, including sampling and analyses, has been added.
Item 4.4.8:
The requirement for the approval of the outsourced process supplier has been added. In this context, the requirement that the supplier in question must have an IFS-food or other GFSI-approved certificate or an on-site audit by an experienced and competent person has been added.
Article 4.9.6.3:
It was added that the plastic strip curtains separating the interior areas should be in good condition and easy to clean.
Article 4.10.3:
The requirement to keep cleaning and disinfection control records has been added.
Article 4.12.1:
Details on the control of physical contamination: Environmental contaminants, machine oils and dust spillages; product contamination risks from equipment, pipes, walkways, platforms and stairs, etc has been added .
Article 4.13.1:
Requirement that site infrastructure and operations should be designed and constructed to prevent pest infestation has been added.
Article 4.20.1:
Requirement to identify trained and senior management-appointed responsible persons for the food fraud assessment and mitigation plan has been added .
Article 6.3:
Requirement for internal audits to test the effectiveness of the food defence plan and review relevant control measures has been added.
Other additions:
In the 7th revision of IFS, apart from the 11 items described above, some minor additions were made to some standard provisions and requirements. For example Food Safety Culture was added to the policy statement. It was added that specific objectives should be set for the statements in the policy and also that the food safety culture should be reviewed at the management review meeting.
Provisions on the necessity of implementing food safety culture in the organisation have been added.
The requirement to assess allergen and radiological hazards and hazards from food contact materials in hazard analysis has been added.
It was stated that product traceability should be completed within 4 hours.
Detailed definitions have been made for packaging materials. Organoleptic tests, storage tests, chemical analyses and migration tests have been added for the suitability of packaging materials.
Finally, some changes were also made to the Inspection Protocol. According to these amendments:
Corrections for all deviations written by the auditor at the end of the audit should be identified and the organisation should forward the corrections and evidence of correction to the certification body no later than 4 weeks after receipt of the IFS pre-assessment report.
Changes were made regarding the scoring system. The auditor can only assess the KO requirements with A, C (deviation) and D (deviation). The assessment of the KO requirement with B (15 points) has been removed.
Since deviations will be assessed by the auditor only with C (5 points) and D (-20 points), it was seen that it would be more difficult for the auditee to achieve “high level – at least 95% score” than before.
As of 1 January 2021, unannounced audits will be carried out at least once every 3 years, and the audited organisation will decide which of these audits will be unannounced.
As 10k, we provide comprehensive training and consultancy services for you to obtain (or renew) your IFS certificate. you can contact us.