Collaboration announced between GFSI recognised schemes IFS / SQF

During the CIES/GFSI Food Safety Conference in Amsterdam, the International Food Standard (IFS) and Safe Quality Food (SQF) certification programmes have announced their future collaboration.

Areas of cooperation will include auditor qualifications, selection of accreditation and certification bodies and the connection between the databases. The actual standards will not be affected and both IFS and SQF will continue to provide global services for food safety certification worldwide. With the harmonisation of the services of the two standard owners, suppliers and retailers will benefit by efficiencies in the system.

IFS is the food safety standard of the German, French, Italian, Austrian, Swiss and Spanish retailers with currently more then 8.500 certifications per year. SQF is the food safety standard provided by the Food Marketing Institute, United States with over 8.000 certifications per year. Both schemes are recognised by the Global Food Safety Initiative, which is managed by CIES – The Food Business Forum.