International Food Standard (IFS)

In 2003, the International Foods Standard was defined by representatives of the European food retail business and provides for verification and for certification of systems to ensure food safety as well as quality and conformity during the production of food.

The IFS is based on the known quality management norm DIN EN ISO 9001:2008, which also contains the principles for good production parameters (cleaning, disinfection, pest control, maintenance and training) and HACCP.

The version 5 valid since January 2008 is a modified version where the requirements are more clearly formulated, but also additional knock out criteria (before 4, now 10 criteria) were introduced.