The Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) and IFS recently renewed their cooperation by signing a new agreement. NVWA was the first authority in Europe to take information from recognised certification systems into account in its supervision activities. 

Celebrating 10 years of successful cooperation 

Since 2016, NVWA has taken the IFS Food Standard into account as part of its risk-based approach to food safety supervision. Both organisations value the cooperation, characterised by a constructive spirit and mutual trust. The new agreement reaffirms this commitment and establishes a formal basis for enhancing the exchange of information, knowledge, and expertise. 

To celebrate this occasion, we spoke with Hans van der A, Coordinating/Specialist Advisor for Public-Private Partnerships at NVWA. He was in Berlin for the annual meeting with IFS. 

Sharing the same objective: Safe food for everyone

“Safe food for everyone. That was, and still is, the shared objective that NVWA, as the regulatory authority, and IFS, as the scheme owner of certification standards, pursue. We each have our own responsibilities and approaches, but we had also identified considerable overlap in our activities, such as audits of food-handling businesses to ensure compliance with legislation and regulations”, says Hans van der A, looking back. 

“Today, our supervision activities are risk-based, taking information obtained from accepted certification standards into account. Where possible, we aim to avoid duplicating activities and rely on the effectiveness of the private certification systems, such as IFS Food and other accepted standards. This approach allows us to allocate our resources more effectively to where we identify the highest risks. An approach that can also reduce audit frequency for companies that demonstrate strong compliance,” he continues. 

Taking the collaboration to the next level 

Both IFS and NVWA recognise the growing importance of sharing and using available data and information to identify and assess food safety risks. It marks a field in which both can intensify their cooperation in future.

 “Data will play an increasingly important role in NVWA’s risk-based supervision approach, and the growing availability of data science tools will help identify current and future risks”, Hans van der A underlines. 

The renewed agreement lays a formal foundation for utilising each other’s data, knowledge and expertise at a meta level. 

“This marks another step forward in strengthening our partnership, particularly by enhancing the possibilities for information analysis and exchange. I am fully confident we will jointly explore new and successful avenues to safeguard food safety”, closes Hans van der A.

IFS looks forward to continued cooperation, constructive engagement, and support for a data-driven approach to advancing our shared objective of strengthening food safety and building trust across supply chains. 

Further information:

Learn more about the IFS Food Standard.

Learn more about the private control systems accepted by NVWA.