Consumer Goods and Hygiene: IFS HPC, ISO 9001 and Retailer Audits

Which sites and products does this page cover?

Plants that manufacture, fill or convert non-food fast-moving consumer goods for supermarkets, pharmacies or export markets. Food FMCG are covered on our food and beverage page. Five profiles come up most often:

• detergents and cleaning products: laundry liquids and powders, dishwashing liquids, household cleaners, bleach;
• cosmetics and personal care: soaps, shower gels, shampoos, creams, cosmetic oils;
• hygiene paper and tissue: toilet tissue, kitchen towels, facial tissues, converted from parent reels;
• absorbent hygiene products: nappies, sanitary towels and pads;
• contract manufacturers and traders: subcontractors producing for a brand or a retailer, importers of finished goods.

What they share: a retail or brand-owner customer that writes its requirements into a specification, then comes to check them. That customer may be a European retailer sourcing private label goods from Morocco, a Gulf importer or a regional distributor in West Africa.

Which standard fits your customer and your market?

The one your customer writes into its specification. The table compares the options we meet on these sites.

Two decision rules:

1. ISO 9001 first, IFS HPC when the customer requires it. An ISO 9001 site keeps its foundation (document control, internal audits, management review) and adds what a retailer expects from a supplier of products sold under its brand.
2. Get the request in writing: standard, version, scope, deadline. For a site that is just starting, ask whether the customer accepts IFS Progress, a two-level assessment that exists for HPC but is not a certificate.

Scoring and KO requirements for IFS Food version 8 are explained on our IFS certification hub. IFS HPC has its own rules: scoring, audit frequency and unannounced audits are set out in the version 3 documents published by IFS, to be read before planning the audit.

What does an IFS HPC audit check?

The official IFS HPC fact sheet groups the requirements into five blocks: governance and senior management commitment; product safety and quality management system; resource management; operational processes; measurements, analysis and improvement. IFS describes a risk-based, non-prescriptive approach: the site chooses the hazard control methods best suited to its own production conditions.

According to IFS, the standard covers cosmetic products, chemical household products, daily use household products and personal hygiene products, including class I medical devices. The IFS HPC page links to a version 3 doctrine and to a product example chart, which tells you whether a given product is in scope. Check how your products are classified there, hygiene paper and tissue included, before requesting the audit.

In our gap assessments, five topics carry the most weight:

• formulations and specifications: a frozen formula, approved raw materials, a specification signed off by the customer; a surfactant or fragrance supplier changed without review is a classic finding;
• manufacturing and changeovers: weighing, cleaning between two formulas or fragrances, line clearance between two brands, fill control, batch release; for a contract manufacturer serving several retailers, mixed labels between two customers are the typical risk;
• hygiene and foreign matter: a water-based cream or a facial tissue is not contaminated in the same way as a concentrated detergent; zone hygiene levels and process water quality are justified by the risk assessment;
• artwork and labels: on a private label product the label belongs to the customer, but the error is yours;
• traceability and complaints: link a finished batch to its raw materials, packaging and customers, and follow every complaint passed on by the retailer through to corrective action.

Which country-of-sale rules do you need to know?

Those of every market where the product is sold: an IFS HPC or ISO 9001 certificate is not regulatory compliance. For cosmetics sold in the European Union, the European Commission summarises Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 as follows:

• only products for which a legal or natural person is designated within the EU may be placed on the market, and the regulation sets out that responsible person’s obligations;
• a product safety report is prepared before the product is placed on the market;
• the product is notified only once on the EU cosmetic products notification portal (CPNP);
• the responsible person notifies serious undesirable effects to national authorities.

The same page cites Regulation (EU) No 655/2013 on the justification of claims. When the responsible person is your European customer or its importer, it will ask you for formulations, manufacturing data, evidence of good practice and packaging information. The regulation also requires manufacture under good manufacturing practice, which is presumed where manufacture follows the relevant harmonised standards published in the Official Journal of the European Union (Article 8): ask your customer which one it relies on.

Detergents and cleaning products fall under other texts. Regulation (EC) No 648/2004 on detergents remains in force until 22 September 2029; Regulation (EU) 2026/405 on detergents and surfactants then replaces it. Classification, labelling and packaging of mixtures fall under Regulation (EC) No 1272/2008, known as CLP.

For Morocco, check for each range, cosmetics, personal hygiene or detergents, which text and which authority govern registration and labelling before placing it on the market. Where a hygiene product is a medical device, Moroccan Law No 84-12 applies: see our pharmaceuticals and health page.

What do retailers check in a supplier audit?

What the certificate does not tell them: that the certified scope covers their products, that their specification is applied, that their brand artwork is under control and that no step is subcontracted without their knowledge. It is a second-party audit: it complements certification, it does not replace it.

ACG works on both sides. We audit suppliers for retailers and brand owners qualifying their supply base, in Morocco and worldwide, and we run mock audits at the supplier before the customer’s visit. Process, impartiality rules and preparation checklists are on our audits and inspections page.

Typical case: a detergent manufacturer near Casablanca prepares to list a range under a retailer’s brand. The mock audit tests what the customer’s auditor will check: the product formula, line clearance between the manufacturer’s brand and the retailer’s, the approved label, and a traceability exercise on a real batch.

How should you manage the packaging of your products?

As a high-risk raw material. A leaking bottle, a misprinted label or a contaminated film becomes your complaint. According to IFS, IFS PACsecure covers primary or secondary packaging for food, cosmetics, household products and personal hygiene products; BRCGS Packaging Materials Issue 7 also covers non-food packaging. Requiring one or the other makes supplier approval simpler: see packaging and printing.

For exports to the European Union, Regulation (EU) 2025/40 (PPWR) has applied since 12 August 2026 to packaging placed on the EU market. Its obligations are phased: harmonised labelling applies from 12 August 2028 at the earliest, which means artwork changes ahead. Your role depends on the brand on the pack and on the company placing the product on the market: see PPWR and packaging.

How do you link quality, environment and health and safety?

In one system: one process map, one document control, one internal audit programme and one management review. A detergent or cosmetics plant stores chemicals, discharges effluent and answers its customers’ environmental questionnaires.

• ISO 9001:2026 remains the foundation, with a transition period until 30 September 2029.
• ISO 14001:2026, published in April 2026, structures environmental aspects, discharges and emergency situations; transition until 30 April 2029.
• ISO 45001:2018, in force, with a revision expected in 2027, frames health and safety: see ISO 45001 certification.

An integrated QHSE management system avoids three files for the same facts; our QHSE and ISO systems hub helps you choose the standards that matter. Without a full-time QHSE manager, the role can be held on a shared-time basis by an outsourced QHSE manager: see outsourced QHSE.

Where should you start?

With a gap assessment, not an audit date. Settle these points with your management team:

• Each customer has stated in writing the standard, version, scope and deadline expected.
  
• The product list is up to date: product family, brand (yours or a customer’s), destination market.
  
• Each product has a frozen formula, approved raw materials and an approved specification.
  
• The rules of each country of sale are identified, with the responsible person for placing on the market.
  
• Packaging suppliers are approved on evidence: certificate, audit or questionnaire.
  
• Artwork and labels are version-controlled, with obsolete versions removed from the shop floor.
  
• A traceability test has been run on a real batch, from raw material to customer.
  
• The transition plan to ISO 9001:2026, and to ISO 14001:2026 where relevant, is dated.
  

If more than three boxes remain empty, the gap assessment will show which scope and timeline are realistic.

What ACG does for consumer goods and hygiene manufacturers

A typical assignment runs from gap assessment, choice of standard and scope, documentation written with your process owners, training and mock audit through to certificate maintenance.

ACG, an ISO 9001-certified firm, has delivered 502 projects with 32 consultants and experts, trained more than 120,000 people and reports a 100% success rate on the certifications it has supported. Its founder, Dr. Ismail Idrissi, is an IRCA-certified QHSE Lead Auditor and a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt; ACG’s team includes IFS Train the Trainer trainers.

Your teams can train in ISO standards, environment, risk and pharma and occupational health and safety, or through custom programmes built from our training catalogue. For Moroccan companies, these courses may fall under the OFPPT special training contracts, with a simulation and no promised amount: see CSF / OFPPT funding. To discuss your site and customers, describe your project.