IFS Integrity Program

The new IFS Integrity Program will strengthen the added values of the IFS by checking the implementation of the standard in practise. This will support the continuous growth of the IFS by improving reliability and credibility. The Integrity program includes all the different measures to assure the quality of the IFS, with a focus on the review of audits conducted by the IFS certification bodies and their auditors.

1.Complaint Management

The IFS Office deals with complaints concerning IFS audits, reports, certificates or other circumstances in which the integrity of the IFS brand is put into question. It is possible to notify them to the IFS via an IFS Complaint Form (available as from end of March here). Retailers, certification bodies, employees of IFS-certified companies or other natural or legal persons can use this form. The IFS also analyses the IFS database, using automatic tools, in order to identify breaches without external notification as a complaint.
The IFS Offices will gather all necessary information in order to find out the reason for the complaint, the cause of the complaint and if there are breaches against IFS requirements for certified companies, accredited certification bodies and IFS-approved auditors. These steps can include cooperation with the involved certification body, by requesting a statement and internal investigation, cooperation with the responsible accreditation body and own investigation audits. These audits can be undertaken at the certified company level (investigation on-site supplier audit), at the accredited certification body level (investigation CB office audit) and/or at a company going to be certified level, during a regular IFS certification audit (investigation witness audit) and are conducted by auditors employed by the IFS and completely independent of the auditees.
Depending on the situations, the conditions or organisation and the consequences are variable (e.g. concerning announced or non announced visits to the certification body and/or auditee). If the audits at the certified companies end in the evaluation of a Major or K.O. non-conformity, the IFS will require the responsible certification body to withdraw the IFS certificate. If a breach by a certification body and/or an auditor is likely, the IFS will forward all necessary information made anonymous to an independent committee, in order to make a decision on the existence of a breach and on the severity of it (Sanction Committee).
This Committee is made up of a lawyer (chairperson), participants from industry, retailers and certification bodies, who are selected every year by open ballot. The participants from certification bodies are invited to give technical support but have no influence on the decision, because they do not have voting rights. Breaches are divided into three levels, depending on their severity and their relevance for product safety and/or legality. The sanctions arising from a breach depend on the level of breach and on the number of breaches previously committed by a certification body and/or an IFS-approved auditor. This leads to a sanction hierarchy, beginning with the reimbursement of investigation audit costs and internal corrective actions, followed by the imposition of fines, the blocking of auditors and trainings performed at the IFS Academy, ending with a suspension or a cancellation of contracts with certification bodies.

2.Additional Quality Assurance activities

The additional Quality Assurance activities are activities aimed at monitoring the entire IFS activity. This means that audits are carried out by the IFS, in order to assess the IFS system regardless of whether or not a complaint has been made (surveillance audits). The sampling is based on a random process and on objective criteria. These criteria are both economic criteria (e.g. number of issued certificates) and quality criteria (e.g. review and automatic analyses of IFS certification processes and corresponding reports). The audits are a combination of a surveillance CB office audit at the accredited certification body and surveillance on-site supplier audits at the certified company. The samples are linked with each other in such a way that certification processes are checked in the certification body in a first step and, in a subsequent step, these samples are checked on-site in order to compare the documentation with the real situation in the company.

All procedures are laid down in a contract between IFS (HDE Trade Services GmbH) and each certification body. The certification body shall inform their customers, to adjust the contracts with their certified companies and new customers.