The BRC (British Retail Consortium) Global Standard for food and the IFS (International Food Standard) are food safety standards created to ensure supplier compliance and secure retailers’ ability to guarantee the quality and safety of the food products that they sell.

BRC Food and IFS are the operating tools most frequently used by all players in the food chain, in order to select and qualify the suppliers. This reduces the overall costs of the process and increases the level of safety for customers, suppliers, and consumers. Regarded as a "ticket to trade", the standards are also an opportunity to demonstrate your company's commitment to food safety, quality, and legality.

What are the BRC and IFS standards?
The main retailers in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Europe in general are concerned about food safety because of their direct responsibility in case of an incident.

To take control of the situation, retailers require that all food suppliers are certified to a specialised standard to ensure that they comply with quality and safety demands, and legal requirements.

The requirements in the retailers' standards are related to the quality management system, the HACCP system and the Factory Environmental Standards, which is a set of GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices) and GHP (Good Hygiene Practices) requirements.

Why is BRC/IFS certification good for my business?
The most important European retailers and many food processing industries established BRC or IFS certification as mandatory requirement to be included in their food and/or ingredients supplier list.

The standards enable your organisation to:

• provide evidence of commitment and, in case of food safety incident, legal defence in the frame of the "due diligence" concept
  
  
• build and operate a management system capable of helping you to better meet food quality and safety requirements and legal compliance, with specific reference to the legislation applicable in the Countries where the finished product is consumed
  
  
• provide a tool for food safety performance improvement, and the means to monitor and measure food safety performance effectively
  
  
• facilitate reductions in product waste, product reworking and product recall

Where do I go from here?
For third party certification, you need to implement an effective food safety system complying with the requirements of the standards. The first step is to get on the road to certification.