Product integrity and PIA - The promise is the debt

As a buyer or consumer, you think the products you buy match what you expect from them or what they promise you. However, this is not always the case. We use the HACCP system to control unintentional contaminants that pose a risk to food safety. The food defence plan limits the risk of deliberate sabotage. And based on vulnerability analysis of raw materials and suppliers, measures are taken to prevent food fraud.

How great is the risk of things going wrong within the company, either consciously or unconsciously, causing us to deliver products that do not respect the agreements we have made with our customers? Or the promises we make to consumers through labelling and advertising? Here are a few examples: How do we ensure that only raw materials from supplier X and not from supplier Y are used for customer Z? Is the integrity of recordings guaranteed? Will the integrity of the product be challenged if the client makes unreasonable demands for delivery times? What are the chances that the remaining non-organic pallet will still end up at BIO? Or that the buyer is in cahoots with the supplier?

This is the area of product integrity: ensuring that the product (content + packaging) fully complies and matches the information on the packaging, but that it is also communicated to buyers and consumers in other ways.

Most retailers lay down their requirements in detailed specifications: restrictions on the choice of suppliers, sustainability requirements, a ban on the use of certain additives, origin requirements, etc. And where there is a promise, there is a debt. Once signed, it means that every delivery must comply with it. If, for whatever reason, this cannot be respected, open communication and consultation is expected at the very least.

Product authenticity was already included in the British Retail Consortium's (BRC) global food safety standard. Version 8 explicitly requires it to be included in the policy statement and quality consultation as well. However, the 'Product Integrity Assessment' (PIA) developed a few years ago by AHold/Delhaize goes much further. Many companies heard thunder in Cologne when asked to present the product and data integrity risk assessment, or were baffled by the stringent requirements to ensure 100% balanced mass balances.

IFS has also closely followed these developments and launched its own IFS PIA in April 2019. This is largely based on the requirements of the AH/Delhaize PIA; it expects a strong commitment from management, a complete risk analysis of all processes within the company that could affect product integrity and then demonstrable monitoring of these processes.

The two-day assessment by an IFS-designated certification body is a benchmark assessment that examines the extent to which a company adequately manages product integrity risks. Verified requirements are the benchmark. The assessment results in a report and a final grade, which determines the frequency of subsequent assessments. Customers decide what level they expect from their suppliers and what level of compliance they find acceptable. IFS PIA will be rolled out in the Netherlands and Belgium in 2019, with France and Germany to follow in 2020.

For now, this is a voluntary module. However, it is very likely that retailers will require such an assessment alongside IFS Food in the future.

This contribution is by Kristien Neyts (Quality Coaching)