Food Quality Assurance System - YouTube

Food Quality Assurance System

Before we begin learning about food safety assurance systems,

let us become familiar with the terms “food quality,” “food safety,” and “food healthy quality,”

as well as the relationships between those terms.

Food quality can be defined as the collection of characteristics and criteria

that define a food’s nutritional value, sensory value (e.g., taste, smell),

convenience (e.g., ease of preparation), and safety for the consumer's health.

As a result, it encompasses a broader concept than food safety.

Food safety (hazard-free) is the most critical aspect of food quality;

thus, the food law regulates this issue

in order to ensure that the food consumers purchase meets their safety expectations.

Numerous safety and quality assurance systems have been developed

in order to preserve the quality characteristics of food products.

Any system is a systematic approach to ensuring that food products exhibit

specific characteristics throughout the manufacturing and distribution processes.

Certain systems are mandated by law,

while others are voluntary and must be implemented by food chain members.

Safety Assurance Systems

The distinction between mandatory and voluntary systems

is based on the concept of safety (hazard-free products)

as the minimum legal standard for food quality.

As a result, mandatory systems have been established to ensure food safety,

which are referred to as “safety assurance systems.”

These include Good Hygiene Practices (GHP),

Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP),

and Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) procedures.

Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP)

is a set of guidelines that specify the activities and conditions

that must be followed during food manufacturing processes

in order to ensure that the food produced meets food safety standards.

Similarly, Good Hygiene Practices (GHP) is a set of guidelines outlining the activities

and hygienic conditions that must be met and monitored

throughout the food chain to ensure food safety.

These Good Practices refer to the general management and facilities

that serve as a prerequisite for implementing the HACCP system in a food enterprise.

Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP)

incorporates the key concepts from the FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius’s globally recognized HACCP-System.

It is a method for systematically identifying,

evaluating, and controlling food hazards.

The HACCP system is implemented in 12 stages,

five of which are preliminary tasks

and seven of which are HACCP principles.

Quality Assurance and Management Systems

Maintenance and/or introduction of the remaining qualities in food

(such as, nutritional, sensory, and convenience values)

is not required by law, despite widespread consumer desire.

Voluntary-implemented quality assurance and management systems include

the Quality Assurance Control Points (QACP)

and ISO22000 which refers to food safety management systems.

Quality Assurance Control Points (QACP)

is a food production quality assurance system based on the HACCP concept.

HACCP defines Critical Control Points (hazard elimination),

parameters, and their critical limits,

whereas QACP defines Control Points (quality assurance, not safety),

parameters, and their critical values.

Similarly, in HACCP, QACP is unique to each enterprise

and must be introduced individually for each enterprise and production line.

Having implemented GMP/GHP, HACCP, and QACP systems,

the next step could be to implement other quality systems, such as ISO-22000.

The ISO 22000 sets out the requirements for a food safety management system

and can be certified to it.

It maps out what an organization needs to do to demonstrate its ability to control food safety hazards

in order to ensure that food is safe.

It can be used by any organization regardless of its size or position in the food chain.

Despite their popularity, the ISO-series are not, and will not be, obligatory.

The popularity of food safety (GMP/GHP, HACCP)

and quality management systems (such as, ISO-22000)

aided in the development of traceability systems.

A requirement for traceability emerged also

as a result of growing consumer concerns about food safety.

In brief, traceability is a system that enables the “tracing”

of a product's history throughout the food chain.

It refers to the raw materials’ origins

as well as the product's manufacturing and distribution history.

It is critical to distinguish the terms “assurance” and “management”

when discussing quality assurance and management systems.

The term “assurance” refers to the product itself

and encompasses all of the product's safety assurance systems (such as, GMP, GHP, and HACCP)

as well as the QACP quality assurance system.

On the other hand, the term “management” refers to an organization’s overall approach

to product quality (including safety),

and encompasses both traditional Quality Management Systems (such as, ISO-22000)

and Total Quality Management.