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Quality Management in the Food Industry

1.1 Introduction

The importance of quality in the food industry has grown significantly over recent decades as consumers have become more critical. Apart from that, this is also attributed to the increasing expectations of consumers, stricter governmental regulations, changes in consumption patterns, continuous development of technologies and expanding market competition. Compared to other industry, food quality management is challenging due to the complex character of food products with the unpredictable and evolving behaviour of people involved in the food chain. Therefore, food companies are seeking more efficient and effective managerial approaches to improve or sustain the quality aspect of their processes and products. The key forces that drive the food companies to seek quality management practices may be dictated by internal or external circumstances or maybe both. The key purpose of effective quality management is to boost the competitiveness of the business and offer strategic advantages in the market (Anderson, Rungtusanatham, and Schroeder 1994). Similarly, food quality management is crucial to assure the quality of the process and subsequently the products in food businesses.

Although the food industry is aware of the negative public opinion, not all companies are committed to improving the industry's image

Mike Doyle, PhD, Director of the Center for Food Safety

1.2 Definition of Quality Control

The term 'quality control' () is initiated from the field of engineering where the quality of the product is constructing the quality of the product instead of inspecting the quality. Scoping down to the core of quality control, it is understood as a procedure designed to ensure that the product conforms to a designated set of criteria as set out by the consumers.

Quality control has been prioritised after the World War II where mass production manufacturing was developed despite the fact that quality is always being integrated into the businesses since the industrial revolution in Europe. Therefore, the quality control activities took a significant turn where the demand for more inspectors in ensuring the quality of the product increased. Another major advancement of quality control is when a physician, Dr. Walter Shewhart introduced a statistical approach to quality control in 1924. It started after World War II, when Statistical Quality Control has been widely applied to assist in quality control and production.

The key objectives of quality control are:

• to achieve a consistent quality of the product;
• to maintain the product at the quality at levels and tolerance limits acceptable to the consumers while minimising the cost for the vendors;
• to manage and continuously sustain the expected level of the product quality; and
• to ensure that produced items are fulfilling the highest possible quality.

Quality control can be categorised as off-line quality control and on-line quality control. The key purpose of the quality control is to satisfy the standard of quality in the product being produced as is compatible with the market for which the product is designed and at a price the product will be sold. Thus, the best approach of quality control is to initiate the efforts in the product design phase and continuously apply such efforts through the production operation phases.

1.3 Quality Control in the Food Industry

In modern food manufacturing settings, the quality control systems are the supporting programs that are outcrops of the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point () program. A clear indication of the product conformance to their specification are based in the documentation required in the HACCP program.

Typically, any quality control program in this industry is documented in the program general overview and being verified on a monitoring form. The data gained through documentation, observation, measurement, data analysis and documentation from the programs provided a clear picture of the product conformance to a specification. The common approach to document the overall control system, a form for the quality control scheme should be completed. Thus, this document provided a concise indication of all the quality related programs established by the company (e.g. quality parameters, the specification limits, sampling plan, action plan, critical control point (), and correction action).

Quality control of food refers scientifically to the utilisation of technological, physical, chemical, microbiological, nutritional, and sensory parameters to achieve wholesome food. These quality factors depend on specific attributes, such as sensory properties (e.g. flavour, colour, aroma, taste, texture), quantitative properties (e.g. percentage of sugar, protein, fibre) and hidden attributes (e.g. peroxides, free fatty acids, and enzyme) (Edith and Ochubiojo 2012). Quality control is commonly in the raw material, process control, and finished product in the food industry.

Most large food businesses establish a quality control department in the organisation as they have a crucial role in driving quality efforts. A team of Quality Control (QC) staff promotes quality in the department, assists, and closely consults with the production. Typically, the production department is directly responsible for the quality of the products. Nevertheless, unlike most people's perception, quality assurance () is not directly responsible for the quality of the products the business delivered to its customers.

The professionals of the QC department:

• assist the production in quality-related matters;
• report to the division director of QA;
• seek direction and assistance from the vice president of QA; and
• support for QA programs.

1.3.1 Quality Control (Raw Material)

In producing the products, the food manufacturers have to purchase other products in different forms and services to ensure the business maintains production. The products in the food industry are enormously diverse including raw materials from processed food ingredients, minor and major ingredients in food production.

In the chain of food production, especially in handling the production of the consumer foods, it requires the manufacturers who purchase the ingredients, raw materials and food packaging to ensure the materials are safe and fit for use. Apart from that, the food manufacturers have to identify the impact of supplies and services purchased on quality and subsequently confirm the supplier's capability to meet the requirements of the specification. Thus, many food companies categorised the quality control of these ingredients as being under supplier and purchasing control. Despite purchasing services are not as important as many of the ingredients, services such as pest control, calibration, laundry, plant cleaning and quality consultancy need to be considered. Therefore, the disruption of the food production commonly stemming from the supplier problems may impact the production, customers and the business bottom-line. Food companies should have a systematic control plan in place. Such a systematic control plan is the key focus of the quality management system () in a company which prevents problems and ensures consistency within the manufacturing process.

Typically, the supplier provides the raw materials, which means the quality of the raw materials is not under the direct control of the manufacturer. Nevertheless, the manufacturers can overcome this through their purchasing power where the manufacturers have significant opportunity to select suppliers. The company takes the initiative to have a clear understanding of what is required. Thus, these demands have to be translated into criteria for selecting the suppliers and requirements for them to fulfil.

According to the ISO9001 requirement on the suppliers (i.e. external provider), the companies are only required to define the process, identify the authorised people, and ensure that the practice is implemented and adequately controlled. Nevertheless, the organisation needs to develop and establish procedures that work efficiently for them.

1.3.2 Quality Control in Production (Processes and End Product)

The actual processing approaches are critical in-house factors that may adversely affect quality. The most common process control involved in the food manufacturing process is in the area of the production process despite some operators using the term 'production' and 'processing' interchangeably. The quality programmes in food industry increase the awareness relating to the values of quality of production and production control strategy as their fundamental elements. Quality control activities in the food industry mainly emphasise the production area of the business function.

Controls in production processes are critical in the food businesses as process variation contributes to the total variation of production. Such principles necessitate producer strategies in the manufacturing process in such a manner that the process can be run in controlled conditions at all steps of the food production. Furthermore, such an element of process control in a food quality programme is identified as being critical for the excellent capability of the process and consistent quality of the products. The food manufacturer should plan a process...