What was the site’s starting point?
A young company that produces well, but cannot yet prove it. The site in this case study is a recently created thermoformer in the Gharb-Loukkos area of north-western Morocco. It turns purchased plastic sheet into trays and lids for berries, on three lines, with around forty employees working two shifts. Its trays are primary packaging: they touch the fruit.
Its customers are packhouses that export to Europe. One of them, certified against a GFSI-recognised standard, revises its supplier requirements: it asks its packaging suppliers for a packaging safety certification, with a deadline. It accepts an intermediate step, in writing.
What the initial gap analysis finds:
- recent lines and loyal customers, but no product safety management system;
- suppliers’ technical sheets for the plastic sheet, with no approved specifications and no food-contact declarations of compliance filed by lot;
- traceability that stops at the order number, with no link between the sheet lot and the pallets delivered;
- a workshop that looks clean, with no written rules on glass, hard plastics or cutting blades;
- a one-person quality team, with no deputy.
Aiming for IFS PACsecure directly would have meant preparing, in one go, every requirement of the IFS PACsecure version 3 standard, ten KO requirements included, for an audit of at least two days. Management chose another route.
Why go through IFS Progress PACsecure rather than aim for certification?
Because the programme is designed for this profile. The IFS Progress PACsecure programme grew out of IFS’s observation that size, lack of technical expertise and limited access to resources hold small packaging manufacturers back. It offers a voluntary, step-by-step assessment based on the IFS PACsecure checklist. IFS Progress is the name IFS has given since 2024 to its former IFS Global Markets programmes, with no change of content.
Step | Requirements covered | Who assesses | Typical duration | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Basic level | About 40% of the IFS PACsecure requirements | Certification body or assessment service provider, without accreditation | Typically 8 hours, plus 2 to 3 hours of preparation and reporting | Letter of confirmation, 12 months |
Intermediate level | About 75% (the basic level plus about 30% more) | Same | Same, depending on the site | Letter of confirmation, 12 months |
IFS PACsecure certification | 100%, ten KO requirements | Accredited certification body, IFS auditor | At least 2 days, plus 2 hours of preparation and 0.75 day of reporting | Certificate, 12 months |
Two rules frame the timeline. Each level should not exceed one year, unless agreed with business partners. The site must meet the IFS PACsecure requirements within three years at most. The report and the letter of confirmation are uploaded to the IFS Database, where customers can follow progress and request the action plan.
The first move was therefore commercial: getting the customer to confirm in writing that it accepts the IFS Progress letter of confirmation as an interim step, with a deadline for certification. IFS Progress does not appear on the GFSI page of recognised programmes.
What did the basic level assessment reveal?
What the IFS Progress PACsecure fact sheet announces: the basic level is about foundations. Corporate structure, records, contract agreements, specifications, purchasing, traceability, recall, non-conformities, corrective actions; then good manufacturing practices, from personal hygiene to pest control; finally the basis of hazard analysis and allergen risk mitigation.
The site first assessed itself against the basic level checklist, an optional step the programme provides for. The work streams opened before the assessment:
- specifications: one specification per purchased sheet and per finished product, with the suppliers’ declarations of compliance;
- traceability: a sheet lot number carried onto the production order, then onto each pallet;
- foreign material: a register of glass and hard plastics, and a check of cutting blades at the start and end of each shift;
- pests and cleaning: a pest control contract, and a cleaning plan for the thermoforming machines and storage areas;
- recall: a procedure, a contact list and a first test.
The assessment rules are more flexible than in certification. There are no KO requirements. A Major non-conformity deducts 10% of the total. The assessment is approved at basic level with a score of at least 75% and no Major. The site sends its action plan within two weeks of receiving the pre-report and makes its corrections within three months. The letter of confirmation is valid for twelve months.
How did the site move up to the intermediate level?
By completing the second layer: the system. The intermediate level adds policy, procedures and internal audits, the full hazard analysis and risk assessment system, product fraud and product defence, and further requirements on allergens.
For this thermoformer, it meant setting up a hazard analysis team, with production, maintenance and quality, and studying the hazards at each step: receipt of sheet, heating, forming, cutting, stacking, storage, loading. It also had to assess the fraud vulnerability of purchased materials, notably the origin and composition of the sheet, and train an internal auditor. The quality deputy was appointed at this stage.
The programme does not allow extension assessments: adding a line or a product to the scope requires a new full assessment. The site therefore included all its lines and products from the start, under its customers’ brands as well as its own. The move from basic to intermediate level was completed within the one-year period the programme sets.
How was the IFS PACsecure certification audit prepared?
As a new project, on a system already run in. Certification covers 100% of the requirements, ten KO requirements included, scored A, B or D; a D deducts half of the points and prevents the certificate. The scope was written according to the standard’s rules: product scope “rigid plastic”, thermoformed trays and lids intended as primary packaging for fresh fruit; no brand, no claim, and none of the words “storage” or “transport”, which are always audited.
The points checked before signing with the certification body:
The initial audit was chosen as announced, so that the date could be set at full production. The next cycle will include an unannounced audit at least once in every three; the certification body chooses the year and informs the site at least six months before the audit due date. A pre-audit remained possible, with an auditor different from the one for the initial audit.
What lessons for other packaging converters?
Five, valid well beyond trays:
- The customer’s written agreement comes first. Without it, IFS Progress has no commercial value.
- The entry level is chosen on an honest self-assessment, not on ambition: a site that is already solid can start at the intermediate level, or even go for certification.
- A complete scope from the start avoids a new full assessment along the way.
- The timeline is tight: one year per level at most, three years to certification, unless customers agree otherwise.
- Certification does not settle regulation. For packaging destined for the European Union, the PPWR, applicable since 12 August 2026, has its own obligations: see our PPWR and packaging page.
A manufacturer whose customers ask for BRCGS Packaging Materials instead will follow a different logic: see our IFS Logistics, IFS Broker and IFS PACsecure guide for the choice of standard, and our packaging sector page. The versions and doctrines in force are tracked in IFS Logistics 3, Broker 3.2, PACsecure 3 and IFS Progress in 2026-2027.
One point to watch: as of 6 November 2026, the IFS Progress PACsecure programme published by IFS is version 1 of July 2021, earlier than IFS PACsecure version 3. Before the assessment, ask the assessment provider which checklist it will apply.