Templates and records · IFS Food · Clause 5.8
IFS Food customer and authority complaints record
Every complaint is a piece of data about the product. IFS asks you to deal with each one and also to look at trends so you can act before it happens again.
In one sentence
In IFS Food the complaints record captures every complaint from customers, consumers and authorities with its classification, investigation of the batch affected, the response, corrective actions and periodic trend analysis, as clause 5.8 of the standard requires.
- Where the standard requires it
- IFS Food · Clause 5.8 Clause references follow the numbering of IFS Food Version 8. Where a record underpins a KO requirement, its sheet says so.
- Type of information
- Mandatory record Record to be retained (5.8)
- Who fills it in
- Customer service and quality Whoever receives it records it; quality investigates and decides the response
- When
- On receipt of the complaint Trend analysis at a fixed frequency, and as an input to management review
- How long it is kept
- Shelf life plus one year, at least IFS Food requires records to be kept in line with legislation and for at least one year after the specified shelf life; if the product has none, the period must be justified (2.1.2).
What the standard requires
What IFS Food demands and what it leaves to your judgement
The standard requires a procedure for managing complaints from customers and authorities. Each complaint is recorded, assessed, investigated where appropriate and answered; those affecting food safety are given priority.
Beyond individual handling, IFS requires complaint data to be analysed to detect trends and act on them. Ten minor complaints about the same defect say more than one isolated serious one.
Complaints that reveal a nonconformity become nonconformities and follow the corrective action route.
Structure
Fields the template should include
- Number, date received and channel
- Source: customer, consumer or authority
- Product, batch and best-before or use-by date
- Description and classification: safety, quality, legal, service
- Investigation: samples, batch records, cause
- Response to the complainant and date
- Corrective action and its number, where applicable
- Category for trend analysis
Example
Example: consumer complaint about a plastic fragment
Company, people and figures are fictitious: the example only shows what a properly completed record looks like.
| Field | Content |
|---|---|
| Number | C-2026-057 · 12 May 2026 · web form |
| Source | End consumer, via the retail chain |
| Product | Pasta salad 250 g · batch EP-26-127 |
| Classification | Food safety · foreign body · high priority |
| Investigation | Blue fragment consistent with the lid of a production tub; batch records show no incidents |
| Response | Letter to the consumer on 15 May with a copy to the customer |
| Action | NC-2026-061: tubs replaced with a detectable model and foreign body assessment reviewed |
| Trend | Second plastic complaint in the half-year: presented at management review |
At the audit
Mistakes auditors commonly flag
- Complaints handled by sales that never reach quality.
- Investigations that do not consult the batch records.
- No trend analysis, or categories so broad that they say nothing.
- Requests from the health authority kept outside the record.
- Safety complaints closed with nothing more than compensation for the customer.
In Kimobox
How this record is kept in Kimobox
- 1Complaints are recorded as nonconformities with their source classified, from any channel; if they come through the online shop or a form, they can enter via API.
- 2The batch complained about is linked to its traceability, so the investigation starts from the actual records.
- 3The root cause is mandatory to move forward, and the corrective action has an owner, a deadline and a delay warning.
- 4Complaint indicators by category and product feed the management review report.
Frequently asked questions
What people ask us before getting started
Do all complaints need a response?
IFS requires all of them to be managed and answered where appropriate. What cannot be missing is the record and the assessment, even for those that are dismissed.
Do complaints from the health authority go here?
Yes. The clause expressly covers those from customers and authorities, and the latter usually also require a formal response within a deadline.
What is presented at management review?
The trend analysis: number of complaints by category and product, how they are evolving, the main causes and the effectiveness of the actions taken.
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Sources
Where each figure comes from
References to the official text in force. If a standard is revised, this page is updated and the review date says so.
- IFS Food Version 8 — Standard for auditing product and process compliance in relation to food safety and quality IFS Management GmbH · Version 8, April 2023
- Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 laying down the general principles and requirements of food law (Articles 18 and 19) EUR-Lex · 28 January 2002