IFS Food is a GFSI-benchmarked certification standard for auditing the food safety and quality of companies that process food or pack loose food products. An accredited third party audits your operation against hundreds of requirements, scores each one, and issues a certificate at Foundation or Higher level based on your total percentage and whether you passed the knockout criteria.
IFS Food is one of the recognized ways to prove to a retailer that your plant is under control. What makes it distinctive is the scoring: every requirement earns points, a running percentage decides your level, and a short list of knockout requirements can end the audit on their own. This post walks through how the scoring works, what the knockout criteria are, how the audit is structured, and how IFS Food lines up against the other GFSI-benchmarked schemes.
What is IFS Food certification?
IFS Food is a food safety and quality certification standard, benchmarked by the Global Food Safety Initiative, used mainly by manufacturers supplying European retailers. The current edition, IFS Food version 8, was published in 2023. It applies to companies processing food or packing unpackaged food, and it covers the whole system: senior management responsibility, a HACCP-based food safety plan, quality and food safety management, resource management, operational processes, measurement and analysis, and food defense.
Like the other GFSI-recognized schemes, IFS exists so a retailer can accept one credible audit instead of sending its own auditor to every supplier. Certification is carried out by an accredited certification body, not by IFS itself, and the certificate is what your customers actually ask to see. Underneath it sits the same foundation as any food-safety program: a working HACCP plan on top of solid GMP and prerequisite programs.
How does IFS Food scoring work?
IFS scores every requirement individually, and those scores roll up into a single percentage that decides your certification level. Each requirement gets one of four grades, and each grade carries a point value:
| Grade | Meaning | Points |
|---|---|---|
| A | Full compliance with the requirement | 20 |
| B | Almost full compliance; a minor deviation | 15 |
| C | Only a small part of the requirement is implemented | 5 |
| D | The requirement is not implemented | −20 |
The negative score on a D is the key mechanic. A D does not just earn zero, it subtracts points, so a single unmet requirement drags your total down hard. On top of the letter grades, an auditor can assign a Major nonconformity against a normal requirement when there is a substantial failure that does not fully meet a knockout, a Major carries a heavy points deduction and caps the level you can reach. The result is a system where you can be broadly good and still miss the higher level because a handful of D scores or a Major pulled the percentage down.
Your final score is the sum of points earned as a percentage of the total possible. That percentage maps to your certification level.
What are the KO (knockout) criteria?
Knockout criteria are a defined set of requirements so fundamental that failing even one ends your chance of certification for that audit. IFS Food designates 10 KO requirements things like management responsibility, the CCP monitoring system, traceability, and control of nonconforming product. Because they are the load-bearing controls, they are scored differently from everything else.
A KO requirement can be scored only A, B, or D, a C is not possible for a knockout. If a KO is scored D, it triggers an automatic 50% deduction from the total possible points, which pushes the result below the certification threshold and means no certificate is issued. In plain terms: fail a knockout and you fail the audit, no matter how strong the other several hundred requirements were.
The knockouts are where audit preparation should concentrate, because they are pass-or-fail on their own. A plant can score in the high 80s across the board and still walk away with nothing because its traceability or its CCP monitoring earned a D. Programs like a reliable hold and release program and clean traceability are exactly the kind of controls sitting behind several of the knockouts.
How is an IFS audit structured?
An IFS audit combines a document review with an on-site assessment of your plant and practices, carried out by an auditor from an accredited certification body. The audit checks the requirements across all the standard's chapters, from management systems to the production floor, and the auditor scores each requirement A, B, C, or D as they go.
IFS offers an unannounced audit option, where the auditor arrives within an agreed window without a booked date, which some retailers ask their suppliers to use. After the audit, you submit a corrective action plan for the findings within the required timeframe, and the certification body makes the final decision on whether the certificate is issued and at what level. Recertification runs on a roughly annual cycle, with higher-risk activities audited more frequently.
How do you get IFS Food certified?
The path from deciding to certify to holding a certificate follows a predictable sequence:
- Buy and read the standard. Get the current IFS Food version and map its requirements against what your plant already does.
- Run a gap assessment. Compare your operation to every requirement, paying special attention to the 10 knockouts, and list what is missing.
- Close the gaps. Fix the documentation and the practices, HACCP plan, prerequisite programs, traceability, nonconforming-product control, before you book anything.
- Choose an accredited certification body. Select an IFS-approved certification body and agree the audit scope, type (announced or unannounced), and date window.
- Undergo the audit. Host the on-site and document assessment; the auditor scores each requirement and identifies findings.
- Submit corrective actions. Provide an action plan addressing every finding within the required timeframe.
- Receive the decision and maintain it. The certification body issues the certificate at Foundation or Higher level, and you re-audit on the ongoing cycle to keep it.
The single biggest determinant of a smooth audit is whether your records prove what your procedures claim. Auditors score what they can verify, so a control that works but cannot be evidenced still risks a low grade.
How does IFS Food compare to the other GFSI schemes?
IFS Food, and the other GFSI-benchmarked standards, all deliver the same headline outcome: a recognized certificate that proves a food safety management system built on HACCP and prerequisite programs. Because GFSI benchmarks them against a common set of requirements, most large retailers accept any of them. The differences are in emphasis, structure, and geography.
| IFS Food | Other GFSI schemes | |
|---|---|---|
| Scoring | Numeric: A/B/C/D points to a percentage and a level | Vary from graded/lettered schemes to nonconformity-based pass models |
| Result | Foundation level (≥75%) or Higher level (≥95%) | Grades or a pass/certified outcome, depending on the scheme |
| Strongest footprint | Continental European retail | UK, North America, and international, depending on the scheme |
| Common ground | GFSI-benchmarked, HACCP-based, audited by accredited third parties, accepted by most major retailers | |
In practice, the scheme you pursue is usually driven by your customers, not by which standard is "best." A buyer that specifies one benchmarked scheme will generally accept another, but if your major accounts name a specific certificate, follow that. For a fuller side-by-side of the schemes and how to choose, see our guides to BRCGS FSSC 22000 and SQF.
What are the key IFS numbers?
The scoring facts that decide your outcome, straight from the standard and the scheme owner:
- Requirements are scored A (20 points), B (15), C (5), or D (−20) summed to a percentage of the total possible, per the IFS Food standard.
- A certificate is issued at 75% or above (Foundation level) and at 95% or above (Higher level); below 75% there is no certificate.
- There are 10 knockout (KO) requirements; a KO scored D triggers a 50% deduction of the total possible points and results in non-certification.
- IFS is recognized by the Global Food Safety Initiative which benchmarks it alongside the other major schemes retailers accept.
Everything else in an IFS audit is detail around these numbers: clear the knockouts, keep the D scores off the board, and your percentage carries you to a level.
How does an IFS program run day to day?
A certificate is a snapshot; keeping it means the system runs every day, not just at audit time. The controls behind the knockouts, traceability, CCP monitoring, control of nonconforming product, corrective action, have to produce evidence continuously. That evidence is where plants either coast into an audit or scramble. When monitoring records, corrective actions, traceability, and incoming material inspection results live in scattered binders, assembling the audit pack is a project and a missing signature becomes a D.
A strong food safety culture plus one connected system for the records is what makes IFS sustainable rather than a fire drill. When checks are captured at the point of work and tied to the requirement they satisfy, the audit trail builds itself and a slipping control is visible before the auditor finds it. That is the connected-records approach Harmony brings to the floor, see how the platform works.