Definitions IFS Food 6.1

Question 1

Allergen (EU)

Answer 1

Food causing an adverse reaction that is mediated by an immunological response. Defined allergens are:
– Cereals containing gluten (i.e. wheat, rye, barley, oats, spelt, kamut or their hybridised strains) and products thereof
– Crustaceans and products thereof
– Eggs and products thereof
– Fish and products thereof
– Peanuts and products thereof
– Soybeans and products thereof
– Milk and products thereof (including lactose)
– Nuts i.e. Almond (Amygdalus communis L.), Hazelnut
(Corylus avellana), Walnut (Juglans regia), Cashew (Anacardium occidentale), Pecan nut (Carya illinoiesis (Wangenh.) K. Koch), Brazil nut (Bertholletia excelsa), Pistachio nut (Pistacia vera), Macadamia nut and Queens- land nut (Macadamia ternifolia) and products thereof
– Celery and products thereof
– Lupin and products thereof
– Molluscs and products thereof
– Mustard and products thereof
– Sesame seeds and products thereof
– Sulphur dioxide and sulphites at concentrations of
more than 10 mg/kg or 10 mg/litre expressed as SO2.
Regulation (EU) No 1169 / 2011 of the European Parlia- ment and of the council.

Question 2

Assessor (for accreditation bodies)

Answer 2

Person assigned by an accreditation body to perform, alone or as part of an assessment team, an assessment of a Conformity Assessment Body.)

Question 3

Audit

Answer 3

Systematic, independent and documented process for obtaining audit evidence and evaluating it objectively to determine the extent to which the audit criteria are fulfilled.

Question 4

Audit time window

Answer 4

Period of time during which the unannounced audit may be performed.The date of reference for this time window is the audit due date (date of first certification audit). Within the IFS protocol, the time window is [–16 weeks; + 2 weeks] of the audit due date.
In case where initial audit will be performed directly unannounced, there will not be a specific time window.

Question 5

Blackout period

Answer 5

The company may notify its certification body of the period of time in which the unannouned audit cannot take place (e.g. staff holidays, maintenance days, non-production days, etc.).
This includes maximum 10 operational days, plus non operating periods.
Note: the company cannot provide 10 individual days, but periods related to days when the company cannot ask the auditor to perform the audit in optimum conditions (e.g. planned customer visit, holidays of quality manager, etc.).

Question 6

Calibration

Answer 6

Set of operations that establish, under specified conditions, the relationship between values of quantities indicated by a measuring instrument or measuring system, or values represented by a material measure or a reference material and the corresponding values realised by standards.

Question 7

CCP – Critical Control Point

Answer 7

A step at which control can be applied and is essential to prevent or eliminate a food safety hazard or reduce it to an acceptable level.

Question 8

Company

Answer 8

General organisation (whereas the site is a unit of the company).

Question 9

Contamination

Answer 9

Introduction or occurrence of a contaminant in food or food environment. Contamination does include: physical, chemical, biological contamination. Contamination can also mean correlation of packages among themselves.

Question 10

Corporate

Answer 10

Company

Question 11

Correction

Answer 11

Action to eliminate a detected non-conformity or deviation

Question 12

Corrective action

Answer 12

Action to eliminate the cause of a detected non-conform- ity, deviation or other undesirable situation.

Question 13

CP – Control point

Answer 13

Identified by the hazard analysis as essential in order to control the likelihood of introducing or proliferation of food safety hazard in the product and/or the environment. A CP can be considered as an OPRP (Operational Pre- requisite Program), as defined in ISO 22000.

Question 14

Customer

Answer 14

A customer is a business company or person to whom products are sold either as finished product or as a semi finished part of the finished product.

Question 15

Deviation

Answer 15

Non-compliance with a requirement but there is no impact on food safety related to products and processes. In the IFS, deviations are requirements scored with a B, C or D and KO requirements scored with a B.

Question 16

End-consumer

Answer 16

The ultimate consumer of a foodstuff who will not use the food as part of any food business operation or activity.

Question 17

Factory inspection (versus Internal audits)

Answer 17

Factory inspection covers specific subjects and can be carried out by any appropriate person.That means regular visits in any areas, for any purposes, to check the conformity (hygiene, pest control, product control, fabri- cation, foreign material hazards, surrounding control etc.)

Question 18

Flow diagram

Answer 18

A systematic representation of the sequence of steps or operations used in the production or manufacture of a particular food item.

Question 19

Food defense (changed)

Answer 19

The protection of food products from intentional contam- ination or adulteration by biological, chemical, physical, or radiological agents for the purpose of causing harm.

Question 20

Food fraud (changed)

Answer 20

The deliberate and intentional substitution, mislabelling, adulteration or counterfeiting of food, raw materials, ingredients or packaging placed upon the market for economic gain.This definition also applies to outsourced processes.

Question 21

Food fraud mitigation plan

Answer 21

A process that defines the requirements on when, where and how to mitigate fraudulent activities, identified by a food fraud vulnerability assessment. The resulting plan will define the measures and controls that are required to be in place to effectively mitigate the identified risks.
The control measures required to be put into place may vary according to the nature of
– the food fraud (substitution, mislabelling, adulteration
or counterfeiting)
– detection methodology
– type of surveillance (inspection, audit, analytical,
product certification)
– source of the raw material, ingredient and packaging.

Question 22

Food Fraud Vulnerability Assessment

Answer 22

A systematic documented form of risk assessment to identify the risk of possible food fraud activity within the supply chain (including all raw materials, ingredients, food, packaging and outsourced processes).
The method of risk assessment may vary from company to company, however the systematic methodology for food fraud vulnerability assessment shall include as a minimum:
– The identification of potential food fraud activities, using known and reliable data sources.
– The evaluation of the level of risk; both product and supply source.
– The evaluation for the need for additional control measures.
– Use of the results of the Food Fraud Vulnerability Assessment to develop and implement the Food Fraud Mitigation Plan.
– Reviewed annually, or when there is increased risk identified by change to defined risk criteria.
The criteria used to evaluate the level of risk might be: – History of food fraud incidents
– Economic factors
– Ease of fraudulent activity
– Supply chain complexity – Current control measures – Supplier confidence.

Question 23

Formula

Answer 23

Exhaustive description of quantity and quality of raw materials to be used to process the products, as required in customer specifications.
Formula can also include technological parameters and specific “know-how” on the process.

Question 24

GMO

Answer 24

An organism, with the exception of human beings, in which the genetic material has been modified otherwise than natural multiplication or natural recombination.

Question 25

HACCP

Answer 25

A system which identifies, evaluates and controls hazards which are significant for food safety.

Question 26

Hazard

Answer 26

A biological, chemical or physical agent in, or condition of, food with the potential to cause an adverse health effect.

Question 27

Hazard analysis

Answer 27

The process of collecting and evaluating information on hazards and conditions leading to their presence to decide which are significant for food safety and therefore should be addressed in the HACCP plan.

Question 28

Head office assessment (for accreditation bodies)

Answer 28

Assessment of the Conformity Assessment Body Head Office.

Question 29

Highly perishable products

Answer 29

Products which, from the microbiological point of view, are likely after a short period to constitute an immediate danger to human health.

Question 30

Initial witness audit

Answer 30

The auditor who is witnessed shall be accompanied by
an observer from the certification body during a complete audit in order to evaluate his/her competence.The ob- server shall not be part of the audit (as a team member). The observer shall fulfil the same requirements as for trainers or shall be an IFS auditor.
This witness audit shall be a food safety audit and/or an audit under ISO/IEC 17065.

Note: The witness audit can also be performed after passing the exams and therefore also an IFS audit can be used. In this case both the auditor under observation (AUO) and the witnesser have to cover the whole scope of the audit.The audit is uploaded with the witnesser as lead auditor as the “AUO” is not yet approved as IFS auditor (inserted as “AUO” in the participants list).
On the application file of the auditor (sent afterwards to the IFS offices), the certification body shall specify the name of the company, audit date and name of the person who observed the auditor. On request, the certification body shall be able to provide minutes of the witness audit.

Question 31

Integrity Program

Answer 31

Program implemented by IFS in order to:
– Monitor, as preventive actions performance of auditors
and certification bodies as well as audited companies, – Manage, as corrective actions, any complaints
addressed to IFS.

Question 32

Internal audit

Answer 32

General process of audit, for all the activity of the com- pany. Conducted by or on behalf of the company for inter- nal purposes.
Internal auditing is an independent, objective assurance and consulting activity designed to add value and improve an organization’s operations. It helps an organization ac- complish its objectives by bringing a systematic, disci- plined approach to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of risk management, control, and governance processes.

Question 33

Monitoring

Answer 33

The act of conducting a planned sequence of obser- vations or measurements of control parameters to assess whether a CCP is under control.
See also Codex Alimentarius, General principles of Food hygiene, Guidelines for the application of the HACCP system, section 9.

Question 34

Non-conformity

Answer 34

Non-fulfilment of a specified requirement. Non-conformity can be given in non-respect of legislation, law, food safety, internal dysfunctions and customer issues. In the IFS, de- fined non-conformities are Majors and KO’s scored with a D.

Question 35

Non operating periods (added)

Answer 35

Periods when the production lines are not operating at all, e.g. planned maintenance work, bank holiday, company planned shutdown for holidays, etc.

Question 36

Pasteurisation

Answer 36

Process applied to a product with the objective of minimising possible health hazards arising from pathogenic micro- organisms associated with the product (e.g. milk, creams, ice cream, eggs, fruit juices, fermented products, soups, other beverages etc.) which is consistent with minimal chemical, physical and organoleptic changes in the product.

Question 37

Procedure

Answer 37

Specified way to carry out an activity or process. Procedures shall be implemented and the elaboration of procedures shall be done by documents or process description (e.g. flowchart).

Question 38

Product and Services

Answer 38

Result of a process or activities transforming inputs into outputs. Products include services.

Question 39

Product development

Answer 39

The creation of products with new or different characteris- tics that offer new or additional benefits to the customer. Product development may involve modification of an existing product or its presentation, or formulation of an entirely new product that satisfies a newly defined cus- tomer who wants a market niche. In the IFS Standard, the requirements for chapter product development apply even if there is just a product modification, use of new packag- ing materials or modifications of production processes.

Question 40

Product recall

Answer 40

Any measure aimed at achieving the return of a danger- ous product that has already been supplied or made available to consumers by the producer or distributor.

Question 41

Product requirements

Answer 41

Product requirements includes: product safety, product quality, product legality, process and specification.

Question 42

Product withdrawal

Answer 42

Any measure aimed at preventing the distribution, display and offer of a product dangerous to the con- sumer.

Question 43

Reviewer

Answer 43

Person of the certification body in charge of assessing the IFS audits reports before a certification decision is made.
The tasks of the reviewer are, at least:
– To check the overall consistency of the audit reports.
– To check if the audit reports are properly completed
(e.g. compulsory fields, etc.)
– To check if the findings are well described and if the
justifications are relevant.
– To check if the corrective actions proposed by the
audited company have been validated by the auditor (or by a representative of the certification body) and are relevant.
The review shall be documented.

Question 44

Risk

Answer 44

A function of the probability of an adverse health effect and the severity of that effect consequential to (a) haz- ard(s) in food.

Question 45

Safety Data Sheets (SDS)

Answer 45

The safety data sheet information is principally intended for use by professional users and must enable them to take the necessary measures as regards the protection of health, safety and the environment at the place of work. The safety data sheet may be supplied on paper or electronically, provided that the addressee has the necessary means of receiving it.

Question 46

Seasonal products

Answer 46

Products which are processed at a specific time in the year, or processes which are used at a specific time in the year, for getting new/different products than those processed all year long.

Question 47

Senior management

Answer 47

Executive management

Question 48

Site

Answer 48

A unit of the company

Question 49

Sterilisation

Answer 49

Process applied to a product in final packaging (e.g. milk, fermented products, soups, beverages etc.) with the objective of producing commercially sterile products, with an extended (long) shelf life under ambient tempera- ture.The main concern is inactivation of the most heat resistant pathogenic spore, namely C. botulinum.

Question 50

System

Answer 50

Set of interrelated or interacting elements. System is
a planned, sustainable structured course of action. Depending on the complexity, documentation is recom- mended. System includes: documentation, procedure de- scription, control/monitoring, corrective action, site plan.

Question 51

Traceability

Answer 51

Ability to trace and follow a food, feed, food-producing animal or substance intended to be, or expected to be incorporated into a food or feed, through all stages of production, processing and distribution.

Question 52

Validation

Answer 52

Confirmation through the provision of objective evidences that the requirements for the specific intended use or application have been fulfilled.

Question 53

Verification

Answer 53

Confirmation through the provision of objective evidences that specified requirements have been fulfilled.

Question 54

Witness assessment (by accreditation bodies)

Answer 54

Assessment of the Conformity Assessment Body when it is carrying out conformity assessment services within its scope of accreditation.

Question 55

Witness audit, to be performed every

2 years, for IFS Food approved auditors

Answer 55

The auditor who is witnessed shall be accompanied by an observer from the certification body during a complete IFS audit, in order to evaluate his/her competence.The ob- server shall not be part of the audit (as a team member). The observer shall fulfil the same requirements as for trainers or shall be an IFS auditor. For the observer, relevant product and tech scope(s) approval, in relation
to the products/processes of the audit, is not mandatory. The witness audit shall be an IFS Food, or an IFS Cash & Carry version 1 type 1 or an IFS Cash & Carry version 2 audit. The certification body shall specify the name of the observer in the participants’ list of the IFS audit report and shall be able to provide, on request, minutes of this witness audit. Note 1: in case of audit team in which the team can split during the audit (as both auditors have company’s product and tech scopes), it is not possible to perform
a witness audit by an observer, as the auditor who is witnessed doesn’t perform a complete audit.
But if the team does not split, it is possible to perform a witness audit by an observer for the lead auditor, as it will be possible to witness the auditor during a complete audit. Note 2: witness audits performed by accreditation
bodies are accepted as a replacement of a witness audit performed by an observer from the certification body. Note 3: witness audits performed by IFS Integrity Program during a complete IFS Food audit are also accepted.