7 major changes in IFS Food version 8

The new version of the IFS Food standard was published on 18 April 2023. From 1 October 2023, it will be possible for companies to perform audits according to the new version. From 1 January 2024, this will be mandatory.

The following major changes apply to the new IFS Food version:

• The requirements around food safety culture have been tightened, for example, for the new version, minimum targets must be set regarding communication about the food safety policy, training, feedback from employees what relates to food safety and measuring performance on this.
• Compliance with customer agreements is a new knock-out requirement, specifically for agreements on recipes and process-technical agreements. This also applies to harmonised monitoring plans and agreements on packaging and labels.
• All subjects from the standard should be addressed during internal audits at least every 12 months. Depending on the risk, internal audits should be performed more often.
• The requirements for crisis management have been tightened up. Among other things, assigning responsibilities, training people involved and the communication plan have now become part of the knock-out.
• The basic requirements programme has been updated to the current version of the 2020 Codex Alimentarius General Principles of Food Hygiene.
• On the IFS certificate, a star indicates that an audit has taken place unannounced. In addition, it is possible to include indications of origin as a disclaimer on the certificate.
• The B score is again counted as a deviation in the audit protocol, the chaptering of the standards is more structured.

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