In order to create a uniform food safety standard, the International Food Standard (IFS) was developed by German retailers in 2002. The goals are to create an assessment basis for all producers of private labels, uniform formulations and audits, and a high level of transparency within the supply chain. The catalog of requirements includes: Quality management system requirements, management responsibility, resource management, manufacturing process, measurements, analyses and improvements.
Dieter Hein was the 23rd meat processing company in Germany to receive Europe-wide production approval back in 1976.
The Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point concept (HACCP for short) is a preventive system designed to ensure food and consumer safety. The concept comes from space travel, when NASA wanted to produce one hundred percent safe astronaut food in 1959. In the food industry, according to HACCP, there are control points in every department from incoming goods to outgoing goods based on a flow chart for each product to eliminate hazards to the consumer.
The QS scheme (QS = Quality and Safety) was founded in 2001 and has since developed into the most important system of quality assurance for food products in Germany and abroad. All companies involved in the QS scheme work for the common goal in an alliance for active consumer protection. QS is based on voluntary self-regulation.
The use of the Bio seal is based on the criteria of the EU Organic Regulation. The following is stipulated there, among other things: Prohibitions on irradiation of organic food; prohibition of genetically modified organisms; renunciation of certain pesticides & fertilizers; animal husbandry appropriate to the species; feeding with organic feedstuffs without the addition of antibiotics and performance enhancers.
The CMA - Central Marketing Association of the German Agricultural Industry - has been awarding the CMA Quality Mark to particularly high-quality products from the food industry and craft trades every year for 30 years. The CMA's most prestigious award - the golden CMA quality mark ribbon - was only awarded to products that passed all CMA quality mark tests with the highest number of points over a period of three years, thus proving their lasting quality.