Food Quality Magazine
ISSUE 01 | SUMMER 2014
dards, such as IFS or others. It does
not make a statement on the area of
quality criteria, which are especially
important for retail. This often leads
to the misconception that food safety standards - whether for production or logistical activities - having
the GFSI Benchmark are completely
comparable.
The new IFS Logistics version 2.1
provides continuity with previous versions. IFS Logistics will also
continue in the future not to make
any specifications that have to be
implemented word-for-word. The
risk-based approach is being systematically pursued. By supporting the
qualitative approach, IFS stands for
individual solutions that do justice to processes in the respective
companies. Therefore the task of
the IFS auditor remains to assess the
solution developed in a company
in a risk-based solution which was
developed by the company works in
daily practice.
The new IFS Logistics version 2.1
includes the following amendments,
among others:
• Update of the Standard in compliance with the new scope of recognition
of the GFSI Guidance Document and
the benchmark process for storage
and distribution standards
• Establishing the possibility of group
certification
• Addition to the standard, due to
current market developments, so
that the IFS Logistics is also applicable for transportation and storage
service providers
• Including freezing and thawing
services
• Establishing auditor qualification
requirements for pure IFS Logistics
auditors.
IFS Logistics 2.1 is applicable for food
as well as non-food products. All
logistical activities, such as loading
and unloading, storage and transport, are covered.
The non-food categories of the new
version 2.1 are newly defined and
formulated in a clearer way. There
is also a clearer definition of which
non-food product groups are excluded from the IFS Logistics 2.1 scope
(these are, for example, mineral resources - different conditions (solid, liquid and gaseous), explosive
substances/ munition, waste materials, etc.).
The standard is applicable for all
types of transportation: trucks, vans,
trains, ships, planes and all other
means of transportation (under
controlled conditions or at ambient
stable temperature).
The duration of an audit fundamentally influences its quality and hence the reliability of the
assessments and findings in the
report. For this reason, binding specifications for calculating audit times
are introduced with the new IFS
Logistics version 2.1.
Therefore, the following minimum
audit times are applicable in version
2.1:
• Initial audit: at least 1 day (timeframe: 8 hours)
• Follow-up audit: at least 0.5 days
(timeframe: 4 hours)
• Redaction of the audit report:
approx. 0.5 days
The respective certification body is
responsible for determining a longer
duration of the audit, depending on
the size of the operation and the
complexity of the processes.
For an IFS Logistics certification, it is
possible to conduct an individual or
a group certification.
Logistics, under specific conditions.
The detailed pre-requisites for multi-site/ group certification can be
viewed in the “additional document
for multi-site certification” which can
be downloaded from IFS website.
Unlike the „single-site“ approach
where every operational site of the
company has to be audited every
year and where the simplification
through considering a central quality
management leads to a reduction of
the audit duration on site, the group
certification gives larger companies
the opportunity to include only a
selection of operational sites in the
annual renewal audits.
Logistics companies performing additional broker services continue to
have the possibility to voluntarily get
certified according to IFS Broker. This
will be shown on the certificate.
Case 1: Logistics company also has
broker services (e.g. importation,
trading of goods) and is therefore
undergoing a combined certification
according to IFS Logistics/ IFS Broker.
The following shall be added to the
IFS Logistics certificate: „The company also has broker services, which
are IFS Broker certified“.
Case 2: Logistics company has broker
services (e.g. importation, trading of
goods) that it does not want to have
certified according to IFS Broker. The
following shall be added to the IFS
Logistics certificate: „The company
also has broker services, which are
not IFS Broker certified“.
The new IFS Logistics version 2.1
establishes the new „multi-site“
approach for logistics companies
having many sites. In version 2.1,
companies with several sites and a
central administration are able to
have the central processes audited
by on-site documentation checking
and have these results included in
the audit reports of the individual
logistics sites (distribution centres,
etc.). This has the advantage that
the central functions do not need to
be re-audited every time there is an
audit of a single logistics site.
It may also be possible to conduct
a group certification process for IFS
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