Recognised across
✓ TrustBite Recognised
✓ Delivered in English
From foundations to senior implementor. Private 1-on-1 IFS Food training, built around your site, your products, and your path to certification.
Every IFS Food course at Confi Food runs as a private, dedicated program. No fixed syllabi, no generic scenarios. Your instructor maps the entire training to your site: your product range, your production processes, your site layout, your existing food safety documentation, and your certification timeline. Whether you are preparing for a first IFS Food audit or working to lift your score into the Higher level, the training reflects the reality of your operation from the first session.
Your product range, your production layout, your existing documentation, and your certification gaps are the starting point. The training covers the requirements your site has to meet, in the order it needs them.
Your instructor gives every session, every question, and every example entirely to you. There are no other students. The pace, depth, and direction of the program is yours to set.
Sessions are booked around your working hours, your audit calendar, and your responsibilities. Early morning, late evening, weekends. Your training calendar is yours to define, and your instructor works within it.
Training works through the IFS scoring system and the KO requirements as they apply to your site, so you understand exactly where points are won and lost and what an auditor cannot let pass.
You leave with documentation built for your site: a HACCP plan, internal audit records, nonconformance and corrective action work, or a readiness checklist for your next IFS Food audit. Training ends. The work stays.
TrustBite recognised on all programs. Every certificate carries a unique verification ID that employers and certification bodies can confirm instantly.
IFS stands for International Featured Standards. IFS Food is the flagship standard in the family, used to audit manufacturers of food products on product and process compliance, food safety, and quality. It is published by IFS Management GmbH and has its roots in the German and French retail sectors, which is why it is so widely required across continental European supply chains.
IFS Food is benchmarked by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), so certification is accepted by major retailers and brand owners as evidence that a site controls food safety and quality systematically. It is a prescriptive standard with two features that set it apart: a scoring system, where each requirement is scored and the total determines whether a site certifies at the Foundation or Higher level, and a set of KO (knock-out) requirements that must be met for certification to be granted at all.
Version 8, published in 2023 with audits mandatory from January 2024, is the current edition of the Standard. Alongside IFS Food, IFS publishes standards for logistics, brokers, and packaging, covering other parts of the supply chain. All Confi Food programs cover the current published version.
Governance and Commitment
Food Safety and Quality Management System
Resource Management
Operational Processes
Measurements, Analysis, Improvements
Food Defense
Each requirement scored A, B, C, or D
Knock-out criteria that must be met to certify
IFS Food certification is most often required of manufacturers supplying European retailers, but the IFS family spans the wider supply chain. These are the roles and sectors that benefit most from professional training.
Factories and processing sites pursuing or maintaining IFS Food certification to supply European and global retailers. Food manufacturing is the core IFS Food category.
Producers of food and consumer packaging certified to IFS PACsecure, often required by the brands and manufacturers they supply.
Transport, warehousing, and distribution businesses certified to IFS Logistics, demonstrating control across the storage and distribution chain.
QA and technical managers, internal auditors, and IFS implementors responsible for building, maintaining, or verifying a certified system across one or multiple sites.
Retail and brand technical teams that require IFS Food certification from their supply base and need their own people fluent in the Standard for supplier approval.
Businesses trading food across borders, often certified to IFS Broker, that need staff competent in IFS requirements to manage supplier compliance.
Three private 1-on-1 programs covering every stage of the IFS Food career path. Every course ends with a TrustBite-recognised certificate and a verifiable credential that employers and certification bodies can check online.
The starting point for anyone working with the IFS Food Standard for the first time. Covers the structure and purpose of the Standard, its requirement chapters, the KO requirements, the scoring system, and how an IFS audit and certification level work. You finish understanding how an IFS audit is structured and what an auditor looks for. Customized to your site and sector, delivered in private 1-on-1 sessions arranged around your working hours. A solid foundation for professionals preparing for implementation or a first certification audit.
A premium, private IFS Food program for professionals responsible for internal auditing against the Standard. Covers audit planning and scope, the KO requirements, the scoring system, conducting internal audits across all requirement chapters, writing nonconformances that hold up under third-party certification scrutiny, root cause analysis, managing corrective actions, and verification. The entire program is customized to your products, processes, and site. Every session is private, runs at your pace, and is scheduled around your working hours. You leave with real audit documentation ready for your next internal audit cycle. One instructor. One client. Full dedication throughout.
The senior IFS Food credential. A comprehensive private program for those who design, lead, and develop a certified system against the IFS Food Standard. Covers the Standard in full across all requirement chapters: governance and commitment, the food safety and quality management system, resource management, operational processes, measurements and analysis, and food defense, with the KO requirements and scoring system throughout. You build a complete, audit-ready system for your site under instructor guidance, with a clear plan to achieve or raise your certification level. Every session is private, runs at your pace, and is scheduled entirely around your working hours. TrustBite recognised. Certificates are verifiable online by employers, certification bodies and retailers.
IFS Food certification works alongside the law, not instead of it. Every Confi Food IFS Food course is developed against the actual legal requirements of the jurisdictions your site supplies. The regulations are written into the curriculum, not summarized around it.
IFS Food competency is a recognised career credential at every professional level. Here is how Confi Food programs map to your career stage.
The credential for professionals entering food safety or preparing for their first IFS role. Understand the Standard, the scoring, and the audit before working with them.
The credential for professionals who audit, verify, and maintain the certified system. Internal audit competency recognised by certification bodies and auditors.
The credential for those who own the certified system. Design, develop, and lead food safety against the Standard at the highest level. TrustBite recognised.
Answers to the questions food safety professionals, technical managers, and companies ask most about IFS Food training and certification.
Confi Food offers certified IFS Food training at every level: foundations, internal auditor, and manager and implementor. All programs run 1-on-1 with a dedicated instructor in English, fully customized to the client's products, processes, site, and regulatory context. All programs are TrustBite recognised. The largest IFS Food training providers, including SGS, Bureau Veritas, DQS, and TUV, typically run group courses at fixed dates with a standard syllabus. Confi Food programs are private, scheduled around the client's working hours, and built around their actual site from the first session, which is why professionals who need depth and direct relevance choose Confi Food.
IFS Food is a certification standard for auditing food manufacturers on product and process compliance, food safety, and quality. IFS stands for International Featured Standards, and the standard is published by IFS Management GmbH, with roots in the German and French retail sectors. Because IFS Food is benchmarked by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), certification is accepted by major retailers and brand owners as proof that a site manages food safety and quality systematically. For many manufacturers supplying continental European retailers, IFS Food certification is a practical condition of doing business.
Version 8 is the current edition of the IFS Food Standard, published in 2023, with audits against it mandatory from 1 January 2024. The Standard organizes its requirements into chapters covering governance and commitment, the food safety and quality management system, resource management, operational processes, measurements and analysis, and food defense. IFS Food uses a scoring system in which each requirement is scored, and it includes a set of KO (knock-out) requirements that must be met for certification. The result is certification at a Foundation or Higher level depending on the audit score. Confi Food trains clients to the current published version and maps the requirements to your specific site and audit timeline.
IFS Food, BRCGS, and FSSC 22000 are all GFSI-benchmarked food safety certification schemes, so each is accepted by GFSI-aligned retailers. The differences are structural. IFS Food is a prescriptive standard with a scoring system and KO requirements, originating from German and French retail and widely required across continental European supply chains. BRCGS is a prescriptive, retailer-driven standard originating from the British Retail Consortium. FSSC 22000 is built on the ISO 22000 management system plus sector prerequisite programs, which suits organizations that prefer an ISO-based management system approach. Which scheme a manufacturer holds usually depends on which their customers require. Confi Food trains clients across all of these standards.
Yes. Confi Food delivers IFS Food training fully online through private 1-on-1 sessions with a dedicated instructor. There are no fixed dates and the sessions are delivered live, not pre-recorded. Training is scheduled around the client's working hours so it works around production schedules and audit calendars instead of interrupting them. Every program ends with a TrustBite-recognised certificate carrying a unique verification ID.
Every Confi Food IFS Food program is mapped to your specific site before the first session. Your instructor reviews your product range, production processes, site layout, existing food safety documentation, and certification status. Every requirement application, HACCP exercise, scoring walkthrough, and nonconformance example is built from your actual site and not generic scenarios. If you are a manufacturer preparing for a first IFS Food audit, the program follows your implementation roadmap. If you are an internal auditor at a certified multi-site business, the program builds competency around your real processes and audit challenges. One instructor, one client, every session. This is the core difference from the group courses run by providers such as SGS, Bureau Veritas, DQS, and TUV.
Alongside IFS Food, IFS publishes a family of standards for related parts of the supply chain. The most widely used are IFS Logistics for transport and storage operations, IFS Broker for agents, brokers, and importers, and IFS PACsecure for packaging manufacturers. IFS also publishes standards for areas such as wholesale and cash and carry and household and personal care products. Confi Food focuses on the IFS Food Standard and tailors each program to the standard and site that apply to you.
The Foundations program is typically completed in 1 to 2 weeks of 1-on-1 sessions. The Internal Auditor program runs 2 to 3 weeks. The Manager and Implementor program runs 3 to 5 weeks depending on the complexity of the site and scope. All sessions are arranged around your working hours, so training fits around production and certification activity.
All IFS Food programs begin with a free consultation to map the training to your site, your products, and your certification timeline.