IFS Rolls Out Harmonized Standard Approach for Packing Houses

 

The new IFS Food United Fresh Produce Program provides a method of certifying fruit and vegetable packing companies using the Harmonized Standard from United Fresh during an IFS Food audit. IFS Food is a GFSI benchmarked schemes. The program provides fruit and vegetable producers and packing houses with a streamlined solution to achieve GFSI benchmarked certification with IFS Food and the United Fresh Harmonized Standard, the company said, as well as a one-stop approach using GlobalGAP for primary production – reducing cost and driving efficiency. 

 

Since 2003, IFS has built its presence around the world as a standard owner for the food supply chain. In co-operation with the United Fresh Produce Association, IFS has developed a tool for fruit and vegetable producers and packing companies to get certified in the pre-farm area as well as in the post-farm area in a one-stop approach. 

 

The program will be introduced at the United Fresh Produce Conference in Chicago (June 2014), is immediately available, and will expand after a planned auditor training course in August. 

 

Additionally, a special qualification program develops pre-farm auditors to become IFS Food auditors for fruit and vegetable packing houses. This qualification program will allow for one auditor to perform both the pre-farm area audit (e.g. GlobalGAP) as well as the IFS Food audit for the packing house. This one-stop solution provides an opportunity for the fruit and vegetable business to become certified against GFSI Benchmarked schemes in both pre-farm and post-farm areas. 

 

The co-operation of IFS and United Fresh Produce Association gives the market the confidence that food safety and quality meets the needs of the fruit and vegetable sector. 

 

International Featured Standards (IFS) is an umbrella brand for globally recognized standards in Food, Logistics, Cash & Carry/Wholesale, Broker, Packaging Materials (IFS PACsecure) and Household and Personal Care (HPC). IFS provides global uniform quality assurance and food safety standards benchmarked by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI). The standards are intended to allow the assessment of suppliers’ food safety and quality systems in accordance with a uniform approach. IFS is one of the world’s premier standards organizations in the food and non-food supply chain with more than 15,000 audits conducted globally in 2013. More information about IFS can be found at www.ifs-certification.com. Follow IFS on Twitter: IFS_Food; on LinkedIn.com Group: IFS Food; and on Xing.com Group: IFS Food.