Food Quality and Safety - II

The Quality and Food Safety

The quality assurance is a guarantee of agreed-upon specifications has been delivered. In addition to that, few writers conclude that, explicitly or implicitly that quality is simple, nevertheless many treatises on quality conclude that it is complex, multidimensional, and relative. According to Juran, quality is not a scientific or a technical word, it is not a physical entity, but it is a very useful concept in general life and management. Thus, terms ‘‘food quality’’ and ‘‘food safety’’ mean different things to different people based on their perception. 

Consequently, food quality was considered as an interesting concept where it transcends all steps and all actors within the food chain covering one step forward and one step backward; however, it is of an intangible nature because it is perceived individually. Food quality meanings can be varying according to the situation and can encompass parameters as diverse as organoleptic characteristics, physical and functional properties, nutrient content and consumer protection from fraud. On the other hand, safety is more straightforward, relating to the content of various chemical and microbiological elements in food. Food safety and food quality assurance are forms of guarantees, where assurance of quality is a guarantee that agreed-upon specifications have been met. However, if the safety related specifications are included in the quality assurance system, then the assurance of quality incorporates safety. Nevertheless, consumer is the key to defining quality, where a company’s internal definition of quality is meaningless if it fails to reflect consumer requirements.

In the current context, food firms are facing increasingly intense competitive markets and are implementing quality assurance systems where each quality assurance system covers different quality aspects e.g., some focus on management aspects (ISO), whereas others focus on technology aspects (GMP, HACCP). The current standards are developed focusing to run on multiple platform quality assurance systems which are often combined to assure several quality aspects, for assuring food safety and food quality e.g., the combination of HACCP and ISO 9000. 

Food Safety and Standards

According to the Webster’s Ninth New Collage Dictionary safety was defined as the “condition of being safe from undergoing or causing hurt, injury or loss” and according to the FAO and WHO food safety was the “assurance that food will not cause any harm to the consumer when prepared and/or consumed according to the intended use”. Ensuring food safety in current complex society was an intimidating task which was possible only with corporation and collective efforts of all stakeholders in food supply chain including consumer organizations, industry and the government. On the other hand, food safety was a global phenomenon growing its importance everyday due to the concerns in public health and impact on global trade.  Quality was an essential necessity of the competitiveness and organization’s survival in highly competitive global economy with continuous improvement of product, process and services, where industry has upward moving trends in implementing food quality assurance systems as well as food safety assurance systems.

The food safety assurance systems were required for manufacturing organizations to ensure food safety and compliance to statutory and regulatory requirements as well as customer requirements in food supply chain. On the other hand, organization’s competitiveness and position in global food trade can be strengthened through implementation of quality assurance systems where quality management system can be defined as a complete set of written procedures, practical applications, records of evidence and training. Food manufacturers were interested in implementing food safety and quality systems such as Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) and ISO 9001 Quality Management Systems to comply with quality practices where ISO 9001 basically concentrate on process management requirements while HACCP is focused on technological aspects of food safety assurance. Thus, Manning and Baines emphasized that both food safety and quality of the product and its manufacturing process can be addressed through effective quality assurance systems by splitting product and the process where quality can be defined in terms of intrinsic quality (product) and extrinsic quality (process).

Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP)

Food safety was primarily regulated since mid-1800s but it was mostly the responsibility of the local or state regulations in US at the time. The good manufacturing practices (GMP) were a result of requirement for consumer protection which is a set of regulations issued by authority of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. In beginning of 20th century there was no any federal regulation for the protection of public from dangerous products, the refrigeration means use of ice   where technology was primitive.  Actually, the situation was unthinkable where no pasteurization of milk, chemical preservatives, toxic colours and uncontrolled medicines on the market were contained with narcotics such as heroin, opium, and cocaine. In 1903, the Poison Squad started raising on awareness on need for food safety lead by Harvey W. Wiley, a chemist working in USDA.

In 1906, Upton Sinclair published “The Jungle”, a graphic exposure of the meat packing industry which was lead to pass “Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906”. The 1906 law prevented interstate and foreign commerce in misbranded or adulterated foods, drinks, or drugs. The intent of the Act was to prevent poisoning and consumer fraud. There were many tragedies occurred afterwards which lead to further strengthen and extend the regulations by passing The Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act in 1938. There were drug amendments in 1962, where GMP regulation were grew due to many tragedies and accidental disasters throughout the human advancements in the last century to become the current regulations. The 1962 amendments formalized the good manufacturing practices initially targeting drug manufacturing industry. However, the GMP regulations for food processing facilities were finally proposed in 1968 and three broad categories of interrelated issues arose during the development of the GMPs. The GMP regulations were finalized in April of 1969 and published as Part 128 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). In 1977, Part 128 was recodified and published as Part 110 of the CFR.

According to the General Principles of Food Hygiene of Codex Alimentarius, international food trades, and foreign travel, are increasing, bringing important social and economic benefits. But this also makes the spread of illness around the world easier. Considering the current global food market, food manufacturers have to decide which quality assurance system is most suitable to their specific situation and how this system should be implemented, because there are number of quality assurance systems are available such as GMP, HACCP, ISO 9001, ISO 22000 and the international technical standard of British Retail Consortium (BRC). These systems and their combinations are applied for assuring food quality. On the other hand, GMP consists of fundamental principles, procedures and means needed to design a suitable environment for the production of food of acceptable quality. The basic aim of the GMP codes is to combine procedures for manufacturing and quality control in such a way that products are manufactured consistently to a quality appropriate to their intended use. Nevertheless, regulatory requirements for a well-designed GMP program is varied by the type of product being produced and by the position of the product in the manufacturing process and supply chain where it is important for all food manufacturers to understand the appropriate GMP for their individual products.

A properly designed GMP system must have an appropriate infrastructure or “quality system”, encompassing the organizational structure, procedures, processes and resources. It also needs to have systematic actions necessary to ensure adequate confidence that a product (or service) will satisfy given requirements for quality. Based on this principle, GMPs are being applied to maintain the certainty of safety in the final product where it claims for the minimum sanitary and processing requirements to ensure the production of wholesome food. These requirements can be categorized in to four segments which are production and process controls, personnel practices, building facilities, equipment and utensils. On the other hand, all the employees involved in food supply chain to manufacture, pack and distribute food products for the consumption of humans, has to understand basic principles of sanitation with skills for application. Thus, human factor is one of most important criteria in GMP, where employee hygiene is paramount to plant sanitation and is one of the leading causes of food contamination. In addition, manufacturers are legally liable to take necessary measures and precautions for disease control, personnel cleanliness, supervision, education and training to comply with GMP.

HACCP

The Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) system was first invented for NASA with collaboration of Pillsbury Corporation and US Army due to the risk involved in supplying preserved food for astronauts and it is a common-sense approach in identifying, quantifying and controlling food safety hazards. The HACCP allow food manufacturer to carry out a detailed examination of a process to identify hazards and where the hazards can be controlled by setting up a framework which is a food safety management strategy that has been widely tested and established as an effective means of preventing food-borne diseases when correctly implemented. HACCP has designed in a way that it can be considered as a scientific and systematic system to assure food safety, while applying throughout the whole food chain.

HACCP is a management system where food safety was addressed through the analysis and control of biological, chemical and physical hazards starting from raw material production, procurement and handling to manufacturing, distribution and consumption of the finished product at consumers end. The HACCP system is a proven, cost-effective method of maximizing food safety, where it focuses on hazard control at its source and consists of seven principles of international acceptance that outline how to establish, implement and maintain an HACCP plan for an operation under the consideration. Nevertheless, most of the countries had made responsible food manufactures to oblige by legislation to apply HACCP, while other systems are applied voluntarily in the food industry.

In addition, FDA has emphasized the role of prerequisite programs (PRPs) for the implementation of HACCP where it has been recommended to apply prerequisite programs before the HACCP plan is utilized. Besides, HACCP complements the total quality management because it offers continuous problem prevention. Accordingly, adaptation to a food quality/food safety management system and being able to signal it to consumers, firms can gain marketing advantage and competitive advantages in the consumer level.

ISO 22000

The ISO 22000: 2005 was introduced to world with objective of food safety in food supply chain where synergetic effect of ISO 9001 and HACCP was expected instead of applying two systems in food industry. Thus, ISO 22000 has created a more resilient basis for establishing and demonstrating compliance of organization’s quality management systems with appropriate documentation and procedures defined by the standard, where controls has to be established for every aspect of production process while documenting all the operational procedures as well as managerial actions.

ISO 22000 is developed for food industry where it is directly applicable with the core production areas of food manufacturing process which is a valuable tool for food manufacturers in order to ensure that both quality assurance standards and food quality procedures have been met and achieved. The implementation of ISO 22000 in food industry is related to the structure of food factory, to the nature and number of food products that produced and consumed globally and finally, to the procedures of production. Due to the growth of information age as well as creation of awareness among consumers, the food safety requirement is never being so as high today where ISO 22000 has become a valuable tool in assessing and preventing food safety even before it started.  In contrast, quality is a very difficult term to define or to understand and measuring which cannot be taken as an absolute. 

FSSC 22000

According to Food Safety System Certification 22000 (FSSC 22000), the scheme is developed using the international and independent standards ISO 22000, ISO 22003 and technical specifications for sector PRPs, like ISO 22002-1 and PAS 223, to design a more focused food safety management system which is a private standard that requires more than the minimum requirements to comply and it was developed through a wide and open consultation with a large number of related organizations. The FSSC 22000 certification scheme is developed as an independent private standard in response to the need of the international food sector to have an independent ISO-based food safety management scheme with third party auditing and certification. The FSSC 22000 certification is supported by the European Food and Drink Association (CIAA) and the American Groceries Manufacturing Association (GMA). FSSC 22000 is fully recognized by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) and Accreditation Bodies around the world. According to the global food safety initiative (GFSI), ISO 22000:2005 was having problems in defining prerequisite programs because set specifications are not adequate to define PRPs, where GFSI has introduced clearly defined PRPs and other regulatory controls in FSSC 22000. 

Considering the FSSC 22000, Food safety management and HACCP are greater part the requirements which are directly based on ISO 22000, but the PRPs are having different perspective for ensuring food safety is that food manufacturing organizations maintain the conditions for hygienic environment and production. Since ISO 22000 has not fulfilled this requirement properly at the beginning, FSSC 22000 has taken explicit measures on the requirements of PRPs which allows ISO 22000 certification schemes to be benchmarked by independent regulatory organizations such as Global Food Safety Initiative of Foundation of CIES (GFSI), the British Standards Institution (BSI), the Confederation of the food and drink industries of the EU (CIAA).

The GFSI scheme recognized PRP requirements were developed in compliance with the general principles of food hygiene of the Codex Alimentarius, the guidelines for drinking-water quality of the WHO, the specification BSI-PAS 96 and the key element good manufacturing practices of the GFSI guidance document (fifth edition; section 6.2). The developed standard also called the BSI-PAS 220, which considered most suitable to be included in this scheme in conjunction with the requirements of clause 7.2 of ISO 22000. Thus, there are no very special additional features in FSSC 22000, other than improving the prerequisite requirements and streamlining the structural issues. However, it further added the new guidelines and compliance criteria which increase the compliance levels above the minimum requirements which one of the major differentiations of any private standard.   

BRC Standard

British Retail Consortium introduce the BRC Food Technical Standard in 1998 to be used to evaluate manufacturers of retailer’s own brand food products, as a result of industry needs due to food safety issues in the market.  The standard is designed to assist retailers and brand owners who produce food products of consistent safety and quality through contract manufacturers to assist their 'due diligence' defense, in case should they be subject to a prosecution by the enforcement authorities. The standard was originally developed in response to the needs of UK members of the British Retail Consortium, but it has gained usage world-wide and are specified by growing numbers of retailers and branded manufacturers in the EU, North America and other parts of the world. The certification is achieved through audit by third party certification service providers which reassure retailers and branded manufacturers of the capability and competence of the supplier. The independent third-party compliance reduces the need for retailers and manufacturers to carry out their own audits, thereby reducing the administrative burden on both the supplier and the customer. The Certification to the BRC applicable to products that have been manufactured or prepared only at the site where the evaluation has taken which further includes storage facilities that are under the direct control of the production site management.

The standard is usually updated regularly where most current version for food is “Issue 07” (BRC Global Standard for Food Safety Issue 7 was published in January 2015) which sets out requirements to specify the food safety, quality and operational criteria required to be in place within a food manufacturing organization to fulfill obligations with regard to legal compliance and protection of the consumer. The Standard is designed to allow an assessment of a company’s premises, operational systems and procedures by a competent third party, the certification body, against the requirements of the Standard. The major requirement of the BRC is also same as ISO 22000, FSSC 22000 where adoption and implementation of HACCP, with an effective documented food safety/quality management system while controlling the factory environmental standards, products, processes and personnel.

Food Quality and Safety - I

The Quality

The definition of quality depends on the role of the people defining it. Most consumers have a difficult time defining quality, but they know it when they see it. For example, although you probably have an opinion as to which manufacturer of athletic shoes provides the highest quality; it would probably be difficult for you to define your quality standard in precise terms. Also, your friends may have different opinions regarding which French Fries are of highest quality. The difficulty in defining quality exists regardless of product, and this is true for both manufacturing and service organizations. Think about how difficult it may be to define quality for products such as airline services, child day-care facilities, college classes, or even textbooks. Further complicating issue is that, the meaning of quality has changed over time. Today, there is no single universal definition of quality. However, the term quality can be defined as “the standard of something as measured against other things of a similar kind; the degree of excellence or something”, or “a distinctive attribute or characteristic possessed by someone or something” or “good quality; excellent”.

The Evolution of Quality

The quality assurance was always there from the prehistoric times, but it was not practiced as a concept at least until a century ago due to the misunderstanding that it was an additional cost to the product. Thus, concept of quality has existed for many years, though it’s meaning has rapidly changed and evolved over last half century. In the early twentieth century, quality management meant inspecting products to ensure that they met specifications. In the 1940s, during World War II, quality became more statistical in nature. Statistical sampling techniques were used to evaluate quality, and quality control charts were used to monitor the production process. In the 1960s, with the help of so called “quality gurus,” the concept took on a broader meaning. Quality began to be viewed as something that encompassed the entire organization, not only the production process. Since all functions were responsible for product quality and all shared the costs of poor quality, quality was seen as a concept that affected the entire organization.

Further, during the World War II quality assurance initiated as a primary concept in production to deal with quality issues identified in defense equipment and weaponry. Thus, U.S. Department of Defense initiated and implemented one of the world first quality control programs where finish product testing was the main concern.  This initiative was followed by the United Kingdom who developed their own quality standard for military equipment manufacturing. These practices were later spread into other countries where it formed a basis for development of set of quality assurance standards which was adopted by the all members of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and it was called the Allied Quality Assurance Publication (AQAP). The development continued even after the World War II and US government use the quality standards while contracting defense equipment purchasing where contractors were encouraged and expected to implement those standard practices within their manufacturing processes.

The meaning of quality for businesses changed dramatically in the late 1970s. Before then quality was still viewed as something that needed to be inspected and corrected. However, in the 1970s and 1980s many U.S. industries lost market share to foreign competition. In the auto industry, manufacturers such as Toyota and Honda became major players. In the consumer goods market, companies such as Toshiba and Sony led the way. These foreign competitors were producing lower priced products with considerably higher quality. Thus, to survive, companies had to make major changes in their quality programs. Many hired consultants and instituted quality training programs for their employees, where a new concept of quality was emerged. Nonetheless, quality began to have a strategic meaning. Today, successful companies understand that quality provides a competitive advantage, where they put the customer first and define quality as meeting or exceeding customer expectations.

Since the 1970s, competition based on quality has grown in importance and has generated tremendous interest, concern, and enthusiasm. Companies in every line of business are focusing on improving quality in order to be more competitive. In many industries quality excellence has become a standard for doing business. Companies that do not meet these standards simply will not survive. Thus, importance of quality is demonstrated by many national quality awards and quality certifications that are coveted by businesses.

Evolution of Standards

The quality assurance was in people’s minds from the prehistoric times, but it was practiced as a concept and started shaping the industry dimensions around the last century. International standardization began in the early 20th century with the creation of the International Electro Technical Commission (IEC) in 1906 and the ISO was begun in 1926 under the name of International Federation of the National Standardizing Associations (ISA) which was basically focused on mechanical engineering and disbanded in 1942 during the Second World War. However, it was reorganized in 1946 as ISO which is the current name of the organization and it was stipulated as a voluntary umbrella organization where it’s members were national standardization authorities; each member representing one country. The practices spread around the world while quality standards were further developed where International Organization for Standardization (ISO) was formed with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. The ISO published its first standard in 1951 and it has published 10,060 standards by 1998. 

ISO Standards were not limited to one or two subject area, it covers a multitude of topics including, but not limited to, paper sizes, a uniform system of measurement, symbols for automobile controls, film speed codes, and an internationally standardized freight container, etc. Consequently, one of the initial members of the Organization; the British Standards Institute (BSI) initiated a proposal to develop an international quality assurance and management standard in 1979. In addition, UK government published a white paper on "Standards, Quality and International Competitiveness” that introduced the concept of achieving certification as a marketing tool in 1982 which helps ISO standards to become as a popular marketing tool. Nonetheless, the ISO commenced a technical committee on the initiative which was ISO/TC 176 with twenty-member nations and another 14 nations as observing members. Thus, ISO published its first quality assurance standard in 1987 after eight years of hard work from the initiation which was called the ISO 9000 series. The initial ISO 9000 standard was mostly identical with BS 5750 with three models for quality management system and the selection was based on the scope of the organization. On the other hand, it reflects much of its military inheritance in the initial version. The methodology and practices learnt in the process was applied in to other areas of manufacturing to help the industry as well as to support the globalization of human society where various ISO series were developed later, i.e. ISO 14001 Environmental Management System, ISO 27001 Information Security Management, ISO 22000 Food Safety Management System, etc. 

ISO 9000

ISO 9001:2008 was the previous quality standard applicable in the market which was further improved into ISO 9001:2015 recently. All the versions of the ISO 9001 had intended to evaluate the firm’s ability to effectively design, produce, and deliver quality products and services while enhancing customer satisfaction by including more top-management involvement and continual improvement. ISO 9001 use a process approach which aims to achieve customer satisfaction by meeting customer requirements while improving the system continuously and to prevent nonconformity in products and/or services. The standard provides guidelines for organizations to establish their quality systems by focusing on procedures, control, and documentation, while conceptualizing that certain minimum characteristics of a quality management system could be usefully standardized, giving mutual benefit to suppliers and customers, and focusing on process rather than product/service quality. Considering the customer focus as one of the key area of customers’ needs and expectations, one of the most important customer expectations in their list is to have safe food products, where ISO 9001 allows an

organization to integrate its quality management system with the implementation of a food safety system. According to Bolton, food companies can implement quality assurance systems according to ISO 9000 series, while ensuring quality procedures and reinforcing legislative requirements. On the other hand, ISO 9001 standard is internationally recognized and designed to demonstrate its ability to transform the supplying organization to achieve a basic level of quality by the formalization and documentation of its quality management system, where its effective deployment has been widely recognized in recent years as a means of building sustainable competitive advantage and thereby enhancing firm performance.

Private Standards

After 2000, there is an overwhelming demand for the product standards which later shifted into process standards and it further tighten the application of public standards. Nonetheless, this has widened the scope of the standard while increasing the importance of the private standards which has created concerns in developing countries as they are becoming big block of non-tariff measures. Since WTO member countries should follow reduced tariff over imports, developed countries are using these measures to control imports from developing countries through standards, which intern could potentially result

in loss of international market, a decrease in employment and a decline of an industry. Thus, compliance improves brand image, competitiveness, and opportunities in new markets which encourage the advancement of an industry.