The two private food safety standards required by European retail chains. Without them you cannot get onto the shelves of Mercadona, Carrefour, Tesco, Lidl, Aldi or Eroski. We guide you from the initial diagnosis to the certificate.
IFS (International Featured Standards) Food and BRCGS (British Retail Consortium Global Standards) are the two private food safety schemes recognised by GFSI that European retail chains require from their suppliers. They are not ISO standards and are not legally mandated, but they are obligatory in practice: without one of the two seals, no serious European retail chain will sign a private-label contract. IFS Food version 8 (published in 2023) is the dominant standard in continental Europe — Mercadona, Carrefour, Eroski, Aldi Süd, continental Lidl — while BRCGS version 9 (published in 2022) is the usual requirement for the Anglo-Saxon market: Tesco, Sainsbury's, Marks & Spencer, Lidl UK and the main food importers in North America.
Both standards share the same technical foundation: the HACCP principles of the Codex Alimentarius (hazard analysis and critical control points), documented management system, supplier control, lot traceability and a food defence plan. Where they differ is in emphasis and in the weight given to each chapter during the audit. IFS Food 8 organises its requirements in five chapters — governance and senior management commitment, quality and food safety management system, resource management, production processes, and measurements, analysis and improvement — and scores them on an A/B/C/KO scale. BRCGS v9 has eight clauses, with particular weight on raw material control, food fraud vulnerability assessment (FFVA) and product labelling and legality requirements. If your customer demands both, 70–75% of the documentary system is reusable: it is well worth implementing them in parallel.
Summum Calidad supports the company throughout the entire process: an initial gap analysis against the current version, drafting or updating the HACCP plan, building the system manual and mandatory procedures, training the internal team, a mock audit before the visit of the accredited certification body, and follow-up on the corrective action plan. The certificate is issued by an accredited third party — AENOR, Bureau Veritas, SGS, TÜV or any GFSI-recognised body; we make sure you reach that audit without surprises.
We review your current situation against the requirements of IFS Food 8 or BRCGS v9 (or both). We identify the critical gaps — KOs and majors — and build a work plan with milestones, owners and realistic deadlines to reach the certification audit.
We draw up or update the hazard analysis, decision trees, CCP and OPRP table, food defence plan, FFVA (food fraud vulnerability assessment) and all mandatory documentation: procedures, work instructions, records and allergen control plans. The system is left audit-ready.
We train the food safety team on the standard requirements and HACCP methodology. We carry out a complete internal pre-audit — walk the plant, review records, simulate the external auditor's questions — and deliver a non-conformity report so issues can be resolved before the real audit.
We prepare you for the day of the certification body's audit: documentation checklist, opening-meeting room organisation, guide for the plant tour. After the visit, we manage the corrective action plan for any non-conformities until satisfactory closure and issue of the certificate.
The operational detail: what we deliver as part of the work and what we keep alive afterwards.
Documented GAP analysis
Gap report against IFS Food 8 or BRCGS v9 with an estimated score by chapter, KO / major / minor classification and prioritised action list.
Complete HACCP plan
Hazard analysis (biological, chemical, physical and allergenic), identification of CCPs and OPRPs, critical limits, monitoring system and corrective actions in line with the Codex Alimentarius and Regulation (EC) 852/2004.
System manual and procedures
IFS/BRCGS system documentation: quality and food safety policy, supplier control procedures, traceability, allergen management, product recall, FFVA and food defence.
Internal team training
Training sessions for the quality manager and HACCP team: standard interpretation, hazard analysis methodology, non-conformity management and internal audits.
Certification pre-audit
Full mock audit using external auditor methodology: document review, plant tour, staff interviews and records evaluation. Report with estimated score and priority corrective action list.
Post-audit non-conformity management
Support in responding to the certification body: drafting the corrective action plan (CAP), closure evidence and follow-up until the IFS or BRCGS certificate is issued by the accredited third party.
IFS and BRCGS are the entry threshold to large retail; once the seal is obtained, the same chain starts requesting EcoVadis, verified carbon footprint and upstream digital traceability — that is where Summum Calidad's ESG service and the agri-food ERP from Summum Sistemas come in.
ISO 22000:2018 is the base ISO food safety standard: implementing the ISO 22000 system first reduces the IFS/BRCGS workload by 70%, because they share the HACCP core and the documented management structure.
View service → calidadLarge retail chains require EcoVadis or equivalent as a second step after the food safety seal. Summum Calidad manages the ESG evaluation and sustainability report to fulfil that second requirement.
View service → sistemasThe lot traceability and supplier control required by IFS/BRCGS are far easier to manage with a sector-specific ERP: Summum Sistemas implements agri-food ERP solutions with an integrated traceability module.
View service →It depends on your market. IFS Food 8 is the dominant standard in continental Europe (Spain, France, Germany, Italy): it is required by Mercadona, Carrefour, Eroski and most central European retail chains. BRCGS v9 is mandatory for selling to UK retailers (Tesco, Sainsbury's, M&S) and is also the most widely used in Anglo-Saxon export markets. If your client portfolio includes both markets, the most efficient approach is to implement both systems at the same time: they share 70–75% of documentation and HACCP infrastructure, so the additional cost of doing both in parallel is marginal compared with doing them separately.
The typical timeframe from project start to the certification audit is four to eight months, depending on the company's starting point. If you already have a documented HACCP system or ISO 22000, the process can be accelerated to three or four months. Starting from scratch, six to eight months is typical to build the complete system, train the team and pass the internal pre-audit before inviting the certification body.
No. Summum Calidad is an implementation consultancy: we support you in designing the system, training, the HACCP and audit preparation. The certificate is issued by an accredited certification body recognised by GFSI (AENOR, Bureau Veritas, SGS, TÜV SÜD, Intertek, among others). This separation between consultant and certifier is a requirement of the IFS and BRCGS standards themselves: the body that audits you cannot have been involved in the implementation.
IFS Food version 8 was published in April 2023; voluntary audits under v8 were possible from October 2023, and the version is mandatory for all certification and recertification audits carried out from January 2024. BRCGS (formerly BRC) Global Standard for Food Safety version 9 entered into force in February 2023 (published in August 2022). Any audit conducted before those dates under previous versions (IFS Food 7 or BRC v8) no longer generates valid certificates on the shelf. If your company holds a certificate under a previous version, the next audit must already be conducted under the current version.
Yes, and it is the most efficient strategy. ISO 22000:2018 shares with IFS Food 8 and BRCGS v9 the HACCP core (in line with the Codex Alimentarius), the documented management system structure and traceability requirements. The difference is that IFS and BRCGS add specific commercial requirements (food defence, FFVA, private-label management) that ISO 22000 does not explicitly cover. Implementing all three in an integrated system is perfectly feasible and is what we recommend to exporting companies or those manufacturing both own-brand and retail products. The base manual and procedures are unified; the specificities of each standard are handled as additional modules.