To avoid additional effort, QS companies can combine audits of different standard owners and quality assurance systems. For example, QS scheme participants at the wholesale fruit, vegetables, potatoes stage can combine the QS audit with the IFS audit after consultation with the responsible certification body. In order to simplify the preparation for such combined audits, QS has published supporting documents in which the QS-specific requirements are compared with the requirements of the IFS Food and IFS Cash &Carry/Wholesale or IFS Broker standards:
A prerequisite for performing QS-IFS combined audits is that the general conditions of both systems are met. For example, the certification bodies and auditors commissioned by the companies require approvals for both systems. In the audit, both the entire QS and the entire IFS checklist must be evaluated and transferred to the respective database.
