ANNEX 4:  Exclusion tree

By definition, all food processes that are managed at the same location shall be included in the scope
of an IFS Food Assessment (e. g. slaughtering, deboning, meat cutting, meat processing, etc.).

All processing steps (P) shall be assessed as the exclusion is related to the finished product(s). The key
concept is the evaluation of the product risk analysis which may confirm whether an exceptional prod-
uct exclusion is possible (with no impact on food safety and quality).

Only in those exceptional situations where the IFS Food assessed company would like to exclude pro-
duct(s) from the IFS Food Assessment scope, shall the following questionnaire be filled in by the certifica-
tion body.

Exclusions, when defined and validated by the certification body (after submission of this questionnaire):
• shall always be explained in the company profile of the IFS Assessment report
• shall be clearly specified in the Assessment scope of the IFS Assessment report and certificate.
• shall always have to be re-considered and reviewed each year by the certification body to ensure that
the product exclusion is still valid and that the Assessment scope is still up to date.

Moreover, in case the company processes new products / private labels during the IFS certification cycle,
the company shall contact its certification body to ensure that defined exclusions are still valid and that no
further actions are necessary.

The auditor shall always check on-site if the defined exclusions are relevant and in line with the question-
naire, by assessing the risks that may arise from excluded product(s) (e.g. contaminants, allergens).

Any exclusion which has not been justified in advance and is noticed by the auditor during the Assessment,
shall be assessed either directly during the Assessment (with a necessary review of the Assessment scope
and the Assessment duration) or in the case of a non exclusion, through an extension Assessment at a later
point in time.

In any case (if some exclusions are defined or not), the number of employees to be taken into consider-
ation to calculate Assessment duration shall always be the total number of employees (and not only the
number of employees involved in the activity which is not excluded).

Note 1:  The only exception to this rule is for seasonal process(es), which can be excluded, as long as the
scope of the certification is unambiguous and only takes into account the processes / products assessed in
functioning.

Note 2:  By definition, all by-products from the processing (feed grade / tech. grade) which are not speci-
fied in Annex 3 are excluded from the scope of the IFS Food Assessment. Those products shall not be
specified on the IFS Certificate as exclusions and shall only be described in the company profile of the IFS
Assessment report.

Note 3:  The identification of exclusions shall only be an exceptional situation and can be related to prod-
uct exclusions only.

IFS FOOD VERSION 7 1of 3

IFS Food questionnaire for certification bodies, to define, under exceptional
circumstances, product exclusions in the Assessment scope

If, under exceptional circumstances, the company decides to exclude specific product ranges from the
scope of the IFS Food Assessment, the following questionnaire has to be filled in by the certification body
to check if any exclusions are allowed. The filled in questionnaire shall be part of the Assessment time
schedule.
Company name:  SANTIS 82261
Planned Assessment scope Mecanic Press
(product scope and description):  Extraction, filtration and Planned Assessment date:  23/5/2022
packing of Vegetable
Date of questionnaire validation:  Oils
13/7/2022
packed in modified
atmosphere
Product / group or product(s) excluded:  Peeled, dried, whole/sliced/grinded almonds packed in......
Hydro-Distillation,
filtrationTreatment (cleaning,
and packing of cutting or not and steam sterilization or not)
Name of the certification body employee and
Essential packing
Oils of herbs and spices.
packed
Ismail IDRISSI
who filled in the questionnaire:     in modified atmosphere
Solvant Extraction of
Name of the company employee extracts from herbs
Fouad Touil
who requested the exclusion:   packed in modified
atmosphere
Name of the certification body employee
who approved the requested exclusion: 
1) Is the product to be excluded a private label (retail / wholesale branded) product?
✔ No Yes Exclusion is NOT possible

2) Is the product seasonal/ sporadic?

✔ No Yes

Are the product and / or technology scopes and

HACCP plan (including allergens, contaminants, etc.)
identical for seasonal / sporadic products and regular
products? Product can be included
with a documentary
No Yes on-site evaluation
or can be excluded
3) Is
 the product clearly differentiable from the product(s)
which is / are included in the Assessment scope?
✔ Yes No Exclusion is NOT possible

4) Is 
 / are the initial step(s) of production of the product to be excluded
common with the one of the included product(s)? Exclusion is possible (e.g.
where area / processing line
✔ Yes No is fully independent since
the beginning, without any
5) Does
  the product to be excluded go to a different area than the one contamination risk)
related to the product included in the Assessment scope?
✔ Yes No Exclusion is NOT possible

6) Is
  the contamination risk controlled between included and excluded products?
(The manufacturer shall demonstrate the control of contamination risks between
excluded and included products (allergens, chemical, physical, microbiological
hazards, also at the level of storage and warehouse). Process flow chart related to
the product to be excluded shall be sent to the certification body.)
No ✔ Yes Exclusion is possible

Exclusion is NOT possible Note:  The auditor shall always check on-site if defined exclusions are
relevant and in line with the questionnaire, by assessing the risks which
may arise from excluded products (e.g. contaminants, allergens).

IFS FOOD VERSION 7 2 of 3

Remarks

Glossary
Different area Different location or zone of the company, with or without physical segregation.
Examples of different area:
• In a winery, part of the wine goes to bottling section and another part of the wine goes to a
specific line for packing in huge bag-in-boxes, located in the same workshop but not on
the same line
• In an egg processing company, part of the eggs goes to packing station, another part goes
to a specific workshop for processing egg products
• In a bakery company, sweet cookies are produced in one workshop and salty puff pastry
products are produced in a different specific workshop.

Differentiable Being subjected to different product characteristics, like e.g. different product kind/type,
different name, different packaging material, etc.
Products which are fully equivalent but only having – as different characteristics –
a different label is not enough to differentiate a product.
Examples of differentiable products:
• Coffee grains in glass jars and coffee grains in plastic containers
• Sliced cooked ham packed in 250 g packages and smoked ham (bacon) in 500 g packages.
Documentary Can only be performed if the product/tech scopes and/or HACCP plan (incl. allergens,
on-site evaluation contaminants, etc.) are identical for seasonal/sporadic products and regular products.
This evaluation shall address, at least, HACCP, production records, traceability test,
customer specifications and complaints.

Common initial steps Applies to upstream processing steps or same raw materials which are common between
included and excluded products.
Examples of common initial steps:
• Cakes are coming from common initial steps (i.e. common processing), going then either
on a packing line or on a freezing line
• In a milk processing factory: milk is commonly used, then one part of the milk goes to a
different workshop to process milk powder.

Regular product Product which is processed all year long, in opposite to seasonal or sporadic product.

Seasonal products Products which are processed at a specific time in the year, or processes which are used
at a specific time in the year, for getting new / different products than those processed
all year long.
Sporadic products Products that are irregularly processed (on order/tailor made) and which process cannot
be scheduled in advance.

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IFS FOOD VERSION 7 3 of 3