When hotels evaluate a new beverage supplier, food safety tends to land near the bottom of the agenda. Pricing, product range, equipment compatibility get sorted first. Production conditions behind the concentrate come up later — if at all.
Beyond HACCP: IFS Progress Food explained
HACCP is the legal floor for food safety across the EU and most international markets. It defines the minimum threshold for identifying and controlling hazards in food production, and most suppliers clear it because they are required to.
IFS Progress Food operates at a different tier. It is a full production system audit: raw material sourcing, supplier controls, hygiene protocols, traceability, allergen handling, pest management, laboratory procedures, and internal deviation response. Bureau Veritas conducted our assessment — an independent, accredited body with no stake in the outcome. A strong score reflects how a facility runs under ordinary conditions, not how it presents itself on inspection day.
Supply chain integrity and your own certifications
Many hotel groups carry quality or food safety accreditations of their own — ISO 22000, HACCP-based internal audits, brand standards set by the franchisor. What often goes unexamined is that those accreditations reach into the supply chain. External auditors will scrutinise not only in-house procedures, but also the verified credentials of the suppliers behind them.
This is where the distinction between a supplier’s verbal assurances and documented third-party certification becomes tangible. When a hotel group property undergoes a brand compliance audit, or when an ownership group commissions an independent quality review, the beverage supplier’s production credentials are part of the picture. A certificate issued by an accredited body — with a defined scope, a scored assessment, and a fixed validity period — holds up to that scrutiny in a way that a supplier’s own quality claims do not.
IFS Progress Food certification provides exactly that: a documented audit trail covering the full production system, conducted by a body with no commercial interest in the outcome. For procurement managers who need to defend supplier decisions to ownership, or for F&B directors operating under a franchisor’s standards, this removes a variable that would otherwise require ongoing verification on their end.
Our result
Nektar Natura renewed its IFS Progress Food certification in 2026 with a score of 98.48% at Intermediate level, verified by Bureau Veritas. The certification covers beverage concentrate production at our facility in Kamnik, Slovenia.