What Is IFS Food Certification And Why Is It Important To Buyers Of Food-grade Bulk Bags
Today's consumers are more concerned about the quality of the food they eat than ever before. This is obvious whether you are shopping at a local grocery store or dining at a fork restaurant on a local farm. To ensure that these expectations are met, many people in the food supply chain industry require suppliers and suppliers to conduct independent verification to ensure that they consistently take appropriate food safety and quality measures.
To meet these needs, the food industry relies on multiple food safety management programs, such as the International Specialty Standard Food Standard, also known as IFS Food. In this article, we will help you better understand what IFS food standards are and how the correct FIBC and containers can help ensure that you meet these standards.
What is the International Featured Standard (IFS)?
IFS is a unified standard for food, products and services. They ensure that IFS-certified companies provide services or produce products that meet customer requirements, while always working on process improvement. IFS aims to provide transparency to consumers throughout the supply chain and reduce costs for suppliers and retailers.
Some interesting facts about IFS:
There are 8 IFS standards
They issue 16,800 certificates every year
They have 1,150 auditors
IFS-certified facilities in 90 countries on 4 continents
What is the IFS food standard?
The IFS Food Standard is an audit standard for food manufacturers recognized by the Global Food Safety Initiative. The focus is on food safety and the quality of processes and products. Food standards apply when the product has been "processed" or there is a risk of product contamination during the primary packaging process. IFS Food is important to all food manufacturers, especially those that produce their own brands, because it contains many requirements related to meeting customer requirements.
The goals of IFS Food are:
Establish a unified standard and a unified evaluation system
Work with accredited certification bodies and qualified IFS food auditors
Ensure the comparability and transparency of the entire supply chain
Reduce costs and time for manufacturers and retailers
The IFS Food Packaging Guidelines provide assistance and support for the implementation of IFS food packaging requirements. The IFS Food Packaging Guidelines is mainly for food packaging manufacturers. The purpose of the Food Packaging Guidelines is to improve the safety of product packaging.
IFS food certification provides companies with a way to achieve outstanding results in terms of quality, food safety, customer satisfaction, and market price competitiveness. The benefits of IFS food certification include:
Improve the understanding of good practices, standards and procedures between management and employees.
Supervise compliance with food regulations
Use resources more efficiently
Reduce the need for customer audits
Independent third party audit
Due to the risk-based approach, greater flexibility is achieved through separate implementation.
Why is IFS food certified bulk bag important to buyers of food grade bulk bags?
Technically speaking, IFS does not certify the bag itself, but rather the facility that manufactures the bag. To meet the stringent requirements of IFS and other GFSI-recognized certification regulations, any bags used to transport and store food-grade products must not only be dedicated to contact food and food-related products, but must also be manufactured in IFS-certified facilities.
The food-grade bulk bags produced in the IFS-certified facility are made of 100% virgin polypropylene resin and meet the food-grade requirements of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). When necessary, food-grade bags can be equipped with LDPE/LLDPE linings approved by the pharmaceutical and food-grade industries.
To become a certified IFS facility, bags must be manufactured in a clean room that has undergone rigorous inspections to ensure that they meet standards in the following areas:
Proper ventilation
Pest control
Metal detection
Lampstand inspection
Appropriate personnel wardrobe and hygiene
HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) plan
Keeping records
When do you need FIBC from an IFS certified factory?
Anytime your packaging needs include storage and transportation of raw or processed food, a FIBC manufactured in a certified IFS facility is likely to be the right choice. For food suppliers, this may be a very important step in maintaining customers and expanding the scope of influence. Many large retailers and manufacturers only purchase packaged products produced in IFS-certified factories.
It should be noted that different IFS standards apply to all departments of the supply chain.
