International certification body CMi has become the first UK based certification body approved to carry out audits against the International Food Standard (IFS).

IFS is the audit standard required by German and of late French retailers and is equivalent to the BRC standard required to supply own label products to UK retailers. The approval process included a review of CMi's quality systems and auditors; each auditor has been trained and successfully completed a two and a half hour external written examination and interview before approval by the standard owners.

David Brackston, processing director, CMi Certification, said: "This further demonstrates CMi's international credibility and more importantly allows clients to be able to benefit from combined BRC and IFS audits without suffering the costs and additional time required to carry out two separate audits to satisfy their international customers."

CMi has offices in Italy, Spain, Greece and the Czech Republic, as well as South Africa, North and South America. It is a requirement of IFS that audits are carried out in the local language and the CMi network is able to ensure that this criteria is met.