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The certificates
The BRC and IFS standards are international standards aimed at harmonizing, on the basis of common principles, the different standards adopted by European Large-Scale Distribution to ensure and guarantee a higher level of food safety for customers and consumers.
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The BRC – British Retailer Consortium standard was created in the UK, where it is by now institutionalized; the IFS – International Food Standard is an equivalent standard issued by leading names in German, French and Italian Large-Scale Distribution.
Both standards require certification audits to be performed by highly-qualified Institutes in order to assess the ability of a farm/company to ensure the food safety of the products it places on the market.
The requirements of both standards are perfectly in line with:
- the Quality Management Systems – which make reference to the UNI EN ISO 9001:2008 standard;
- the HACCP – Hazard analysis and critical control points – method system which makes reference to the hygiene-health safety of products.