IFS Broker certification: manage your supplier data and audit evidence.

This page is the "trading" counterpart of our page IFS Food certification. It does not revisit the definition of the standard - for that, see our IFS Broker guide - but addresses operational management : how to organise supplier and product data, automate document collection, track deadlines and prepare audit evidence.

In brief

• IFS Broker applies to operators who do not physically handle the products: brokers, sales agents, trading companies, importers.
• The standard in force is IFS Broker version 3.2, applicable for audits since 1 July 2024.
• The audit covers your information processes : supplier approval and monitoring, specifications, traceability, incident management.
• Five areas concentrate the documentary workload: upstream supplier certificates and validity, product specifications, traceability and batches, non-conformities and complaints, action plans.
• Excel and shared folders hold up at the start, then reach saturation : multiple versions, untracked deadlines, time-consuming searches.
• A centralisation platform such as Tracklab automates document collection, structures data and triggers deadline alerts.

What IFS Broker certification concretely requires of your teams

IFS Broker is the standard in the IFS family intended for operators who buy, sell or broker food products, household and personal care products (HPC, Household & Personal Care) and packaging materials, without processing them. The question "IFS Broker: what is it?" finds its operational answer here: it is not a production standard, it is a standard of document control and information flows.

Because the broker does not manufacture, the auditor cannot observe a manufacturing process. The auditor therefore assesses the company's ability to demonstrate through written evidence that the products it places on the market are compliant. Four concrete requirements follow:

1. Prove who your upstream suppliers are. A documented approval and monitoring procedure, based on a hazard and risk analysis, must exist and be applied.
2. Justify supplier certification. The standard expects the product supplier to be certified to IFS or to another GFSI-recognised standard covering the activity concerned. An exception can only be considered if the customer explicitly accepts it - and this acceptance must be demonstrable (signed specification, contract, email).
3. Control specifications and customer requirements. Specifications must be up to date, identifiable and consistent between the customer version and the supplier version, and the transmission of requirements must be proven.
4. Demonstrate traceability. You must be able to trace a product from the supplier to the customer, with batches and quantities, and test this system at least once a year, in both directions, with a reconciliation of quantities.

Added to this are the management of non-conformities, complaints, withdrawals and recalls, control of outsourced activities and product defence against fraud and malicious acts. The common thread remains the same: a requirement without a dated, retrievable document is an unproven requirement.

IFS Broker version 3: which version applies today?

The reference version is IFS Broker version 3.2, applicable for audits since 1 July 2024. It succeeded version 3.1 (2021) and the initial version 3 (2020). The content is organised into six chapters: management responsibility, quality and product safety management system, resource management, planning and service processes, measurement and improvement, and product defence.

How does the IFS Broker audit work?

TheIFS Broker audit is a process audit, shorter than a manufacturing audit: the standard sets a minimum duration of six hours. It may, as an option and subject to the certification body's agreement, be carried out remotely - but only for announced audits. Like any IFS audit, it is scored requirement by requirement (A, B, C, D), with a usual certification threshold of 75% and strict rules on major non-conformities and KO requirements. The certificate follows an annual cycle.

To place IFS Broker within the whole family of standards, see our guide to IFS certification.

IFS Broker vs IFS Food: what changes in the documentary workload

This is the most frequent question among operators hesitating between the two standards, or combining both activities. The difference does not lie in the level of requirement, but in the subject of the evidence.

What this table tells a Quality team: at a manufacturer, part of the risk plays out on the shop floor and is corrected physically. At a broker, all the risk is documentary - and therefore entirely dependent on how information is organised. An outdated specification, an expired supplier certificate or a traceability test not carried out are immediately visible in a file, while they produce no visible signal in day-to-day activity.

If you store, pack or transport part of the products yourself, these activities fall outside the strict scope of IFS Broker and come under other standards, notably IFS Logistics certification, or even a combined IFS Food / IFS Broker audit. Have the scope confirmed by your certification body before planning the audit. And to position the alternative most often compared, our comparison IFS or BRCGS helps you compare the options.

The 5 documentary workload areas of an IFS Broker certification

Not all requirements carry the same weight. Five areas absorb most of the teams' time - and concentrate the risk of deviation on audit day.

This table reads as a map of priorities. The first two rows almost always concern Purchasing and Regulatory Affairs; the next three involve Quality, Supply Chain and Management. The file becomes robust when these five areas connect: a supplier, its up-to-date certification, the specification of its product, the trace of the delivered batch, and the documented handling if a deviation has been detected.

Why Excel and shared folders reach their limits when you do not control production

Excel and a shared folder are enough to get started. They become fragile as soon as the number of suppliers, items and documents grows.

• The version is authoritative… but which one? A workbook copied between departments, a specification sent back without a version reference: the gap remains invisible until the audit.
• Deadlines do not track themselves. A certificate validity date entered in a column triggers no alert. Tracking relies on human vigilance, and therefore on memory.
• Searching costs time. Finding the analysis or contract for a specific batch in a shared folder takes minutes that add up with every request.
• The data is not structured. A PDF stored in a folder remains a file: its information - certificate number, expiry date, scope covered - cannot be used without manual re-entry.
• The chain of evidence is difficult to reconstruct. Linking a supplier, its certification, a customer specification, a batch and a shipment requires manually assembling scattered information.

These limits are not a matter of personal organisation: they are tool limitations. A spreadsheet is designed to calculate, not to track hundreds of deadlines and document versions. The broker, who sees neither the plant nor the product, depends even more than a manufacturer on the reliability of this information base.

How Tracklab helps manage IFS Broker certification

Tracklab is a centralised supplier and product data management platform. It does not carry out audits and does not issue certificates: it organises the information that enables your teams to maintain compliance over time and arrive at the audit with evidence available.

Centralisation of supplier and product data

A single space brings together your suppliers, their documents, your product items, their specifications and the associated batch records. Each element is linked to its supplier and its product, which makes the information chain readable without manual reconstruction. The approved supplier list remains consistent with actual purchases.

Automated document collection

Rather than chasing suppliers by hand, the platform automates document requests and reminders. You define what you expect per supplier and per document type; follow-up of responses takes place in the tool, not in a mailbox.

AI extraction of critical data

Documents often arrive as heterogeneous PDFs. Tracklab's AI extracts critical data - validity dates, certificate numbers, scopes covered, analysis values - to turn them into structured, usable data, without manual re-entry.

Deadline tracking and alerts

Each document with a validity date has a tracked deadline and an alert before expiry. Tracking no longer depends on one person's memory: certificates, specifications and reviews appear with their status, their date and the actions to take.

Tracklab complements your quality approach and your information system; it does not replace them. It does not provide regulatory monitoring, production management or inventory management, and does not act as a certification body: its scope is supplier and product data and keeping it up to date.

For the complete method, from gap analysis to audit, see our IFS Broker certification steps.

What it changes for Quality, Purchasing and Regulatory teams

Quality

Quality stops chasing documents and focuses on management: supplier reviews, corrective actions, preparation of sensitive requirements and traceability testing. Evidence is centralised, its status is visible, and the internal audit relies on a reliable base rather than on emergency collection.

Purchasing

Purchasing has an up-to-date supplier view: who is approved, on what basis, with which valid documents. The periodic supplier review becomes a documented exercise rather than a reminder campaign, and the risk linked to a non-compliant supplier becomes identifiable upstream, before the order.

Regulatory

Regulatory Affairs saves time on verifying specifications, declarations and certificates. Information extracted from documents feeds the risk analysis and compliance checks without double entry.

The common foundation

What these three teams share is a single data vocabulary : the same supplier, the same product, the same document, the same deadline for everyone. This foundation prevents version gaps and inconsistencies between the system and commercial reality.

Preparation checklist: points to check before the audit

• Upstream supplier view
• Approved supplier list consistent with actual purchases over the last twelve months.
• For each supplier: evidence of approval, assessment and date of last review.
• Up-to-date IFS or GFSI certificates, with a scope covering the activity concerned.
• Certification exceptions accepted by the customer, with documented acceptance.

• Specifications and customer requirements
• Up-to-date supplier and customer specifications, with no outdated version in circulation.
• Evidence of transmission of customer requirements to the supplier and of confirmation.
• Consistency between specification, label, commercial documents and traceability.

• Traceability
• Recent upstream/downstream test report, with reconciliation of quantities.
• Records of batches, shipments and logistics providers available.

• Non-conformities, complaints and actions
• Non-conformities and complaints recorded, with root cause analysis and associated actions.
• Evidence of closure and effectiveness verification available.
• Open actions identified with their owner and deadline.

• Scope and outsourced activities
• Certified scope defined and consistent with the certification contract.
• Contracts and agreements governing outsourced activities available.

Concrete next steps

1. Map your five documentary workload areas and identify the one that costs you the most time today.
2. Measure the freshness of your supplier documents : how many certificates expire in the next 90 days? If the answer takes time, it is a sign of manual tracking.
3. Test the chain of evidence on a representative supplier: status → certification → customer specification → batches → shipment. The time it takes reveals how well structured your data is.
4. Check the scope with your certification body, particularly if you or your service providers handle the products.
5. Choose a tool with the right scope : supplier and product centralisation, automated collection, deadline tracking, AI-powered analysis.

To place these principles within the complete process, through to obtaining and renewing certification, see our IFS Broker certification steps and our guide to IFS certification.