Quality Control and Assurance in Food Production

Posted on Sep 3, 2024 in Other subjects

Quality Control

Process

Quality control maintains standards to avoid undesirable failures in quality. It can be done during or after manufacturing.

Failure Prevention Activities

• Rigorous planning and design with no tolerance for errors.
• Exhibits or visual inspections.
• Control of information.

Steps for Quality Control

1. Determine the parameters to control.
2. Establish critical levels for each parameter and the control site.
3. Establish a specification for each parameter.
4. Detect process variation.
5. Collect and transmit data for analysis.
6. Check the results and diagnose the cause of variation.
7. Propose solutions and determine corrective actions.
8. Take corrective action and verify its success.

Quality Improvement

Quality improvement is any action that produces a beneficial change in achieving quality. It implies a change of standards. While quality control prevents deviation from standards, quality improvement sets new standards.

Steps for Quality Improvement

1. Determine the objective to achieve.
2. Determine the policies needed to make improvements.
3. Conduct a feasibility study.
4. Develop the work plan to achieve the goal.
5. Organize resources to implement the work plan.
6. Identify solutions and alternatives through research.
7. Develop and test the best solution.
8. Identify and overcome resistance to change from the standard.
9. Implement the change.
10. Monitor the new level of performance.

Quality Assurance

Quality assurance is a set of planned and systematic actions that provide adequate confidence that the product will meet quality requirements.

Methods of Achieving Assurance

1. Checking that the product or service meets the standards.
2. Evaluating the company’s ability to provide compliance with established standards.

Product verification does not imply quality control, but an assessment of the controlled quality level. The means to achieve assurance must be incorporated.

Steps for Implementing Quality Assurance

1. Draft documents that express the target quality.
2. Establish a plan for quality assurance.
3. Identify whether the product meets customer needs.
4. Evaluate the operations and products and define the risks.
5. Propose measures to control, reduce, or eliminate risks.
6. Determine the level at which the plan has been implemented and if it avoids the risks.

Quality Systems

Quality systems are a set of actions that achieve, maintain, and ensure quality, helping to achieve quality goals. Actions must be planned, organized, and monitored to succeed.

Features Defining Food Quality

Biological Characteristics

• Nutrient ratios: proteins, fats, etc.
• Calorie content
• Content of essential fatty acids, vitamins, and minerals

Hygienic and Toxicological Characteristics

In assessing protein, it is necessary to know its proportion and two aspects of its quality:

1. Digestibility: Determined by adding enzymes to assess the degree of proteolysis.
2. Biological Value: Determined by chemical methods based on amino acids. It can also be determined by biological methods based on metabolism evaluation. Results are expressed as the degree of protein efficiency.

The biological value of proteins is influenced by water, fat, and carbohydrate content. Therefore, other parameters like the water/protein ratio and fat/protein ratio are evaluated.

The biological properties of foods should be defined by considering two aspects:

1. Provided Specific Characteristics: The values of each parameter (protein, fat, etc.) with its fluctuations.
2. Minimum Requirements: The thresholds that must be met.

Sensory Characteristics

These parameters are evaluated by the consumer at the time of purchase and tasting. Product appearance is the first quality assessed. Taste, odor, and consistency are also evaluated. Many sensory tests based on statistical models can study consumer responses.

Consumer Value

Characteristics that affect the conditions of sale, distribution, and consumption of the product (maintenance, stability, storage capacity, etc.).

Social Value

Features contributing to use, satisfaction, and self-affirmation.

Fitness for Use

When the product meets all legal requirements, it is declared fit for consumption.

Objectives of Food Quality Control

The main objective of monitoring food quality is to verify compliance with standards.