IFS HPC Standard for household and personal care products covers the safety and quality management system and production processes, applicable to retailer, private label products, manufacturers’ brands, and non-branded products by other organizations. By implementing the standard requirements, suppliers of HPC products can meet the market’s growing demands for quality, transparency, and traceability. Determination and orienting to manufacture of high-quality products following legal requirements and customer specifications. Access to retail and wholesale opportunities and strengthen customers’ confidence in the market. Suppliers and their customers can rely on the quality of IFS Audits.

The IFS HPC Standard covers four different group of products:

• Cosmetics (e.g. make up, lotions, shampoo, creams, etc.)
• Household chemical products (e.g. detergents, softeners, cleaning agents, aroma sticks, etc.)
• Daily use household products (e.g. household gloves, bakery paper, brooms, aluminum foil, etc.)
• Personal hygiene products (e.g. tampons, tweezers, bath sponges, diapers, etc.)

IFS Standards are subject to assessments by governmental or private organizations, globally recognized and accredited, ‘benchmarked’ by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI).

Direct benefits are growth of sales, reducing of operating costs, increase of efficiency, strengthen of trust of end-users and consuments.

BRC CP PCH (Consumer Products – Personal Care and Household) is a standard aligned with the buying expectations of major specifier retailers and manufacturers. BRCGS certification schemes are food quality and safety standards developed by British retailers. They are a requirement which many retail brands demand of their suppliers, mainly in the UK but also in Europe and North America: Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s, among others. BRC CP is ‘benchmarked’ by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI).

The BRC Global Standard for Consumer Products is a comprehensive framework designed to ensure the safety, legality, and quality of consumer products. It covers a wide range of products, including personal care items, household goods, and general merchandise. The standard provides guidelines for manufacturers, suppliers, and retailers to meet industry expectations and enhance consumer confidence.

Key Benefits of BRC CP implementation are multiple and significant.

Ensuring that products are safe, legal, and of agreed quality, by using tools as i.e. Risk-Based Approach – taking a common-sense approach, emphasizing risk assessment and management, and also comprehensive support tools for compliance.

This all results in increasement of customer confidence and opening new markets, at the same time improving product safety, reducing recalls and complaints.

For the cosmetic industry ISO 22716, GDP Pharma are the most important and popular standards and practices related to the cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries. These standards are crucial for ensuring product safety, quality, and compliance with requirements in respective industries.

ISO 22716: This is the international standard for Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) in the cosmetics industry. It provides guidelines for the production, control, storage, and shipment of cosmetic products, focusing on the quality aspects of the product. These guidelines cover the quality aspects of the product, but as a whole do not cover safety aspects for the personnel engaged in the plant, nor do they cover aspects of protection of the environment.

The guidelines in ISO 22716:2007 are not applicable to research and development activities and distribution of finished products.

GDP Pharma: Good Distribution Practice (GDP) for pharmaceuticals describes the minimum standards that a wholesale distributor must meet to ensure that the quality and integrity of medicines is maintained throughout the supply chain.

Compliance with GDP ensures that:

• medicines in the supply chain are authorized in accordance with European Union (EU) legislation;
• medicines are stored in the right conditions at all times, including during transportation;
• contamination by or of other products is avoided;
• an adequate turnover of stored medicines takes place;
• the right products reach the right addressee within a satisfactory time period.

The distributor should also put in place a tracing system to enable finding faulty products and an effective recall procedure.

GDP also applies to the sourcing, storage and transportation of active pharmaceutical ingredients and other ingredients used in the production of the medicines.

Packaging of food: BRC Packaging, IFS Pack, FSSC 22000

Each of these standards has its own set of criteria and focuses on different aspects of packaging and logistics to ensure the safety and quality of food products. 

BRC Packaging: The BRCGS Packaging Materials standard, recognized by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), is designed to ensure the quality and safety of packaging materials. It applies not only to food packaging producers but also to producers of packaging for all applications across the supply chain.

IFS Pack: IFS Progress PACsecure is a development program for suppliers of packaging materials. It assesses processes for product safety, quality, traceability, transparency, and compliance with regulations and customer requirements.

FSSC 22000: This is a complete certification scheme for food safety management systems, recognized by GFSI. It’s based on ISO standards and includes sector-specific Pre-Requisite Programs (PRPs). Subcategories related to food packaging are oriented to the packaging materials for food, and divided to the material origin (paper, metal, plastic). Each material has its own set of advantages and challenges, particularly regarding protection, sustainability, and recycling.