IFS

The International Food Standard (IFS) is a unique standard recognised by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) and developed for all food producers, in the first instance for retail chains and their brands. The IFS was created by German retailers in 2002. Its main purpose is to verify the safety and quality of products and product compliance with applicable laws and standards. It is important thet the IFS introduces uniform requirements and transparency in the supply chain, from raw materials to the end product. Therefore, over time, it has become widely recognised, accepted, and even required by clients.

Objective insight into the food safety status provided by an IFS audit makes it possible to achieve:

• standard evaluation of requirements and ease of interpretation;
• possibility of continuous improvement thanks to the ongoing observation of all activities;
• options to remedy non-conformities;
• comprehensive and detailed knowledge of product safety and legality.

It is for this reason that the IFS system has grown so popular not only among retail chains. More and more food businesses forgo independent audits as the IFS has become a required standard in business relationships.

In 2009, the Cerekiew, Ropczyce and Strzelin sugar factories were the first to be certified to the IFS standard, joined a year later by the other sugar factories, in Świdnica and Strzyżów.