QUALITY ASSURANCE AND QUALITY CONTROL
Manufacturers are always anxious that their products live up to their name and that the customer gets a high quality product every time they buy. A Penguin biscuit needs to taste the same, be the same size and have the same ingredients everytime someone buys it - even if it is bought in different parts of the country.
QUALITY ASSURANCE
This is a term used by manufacturers to define the overall standard of a food product. It helps ensure consistency in the final product.
It covers items like -
Raw materials
Suitability of suppliers
Recipe information
Manufacturing methods
Finished product specification
Appropriate storage
Distribution and recall systems
QUALITY CONTROL
This is part of quality assurance and involves the sampling and testing of the product being made. Rapid feedback is possible to detect any failure before it becomes serious and can help prevent delays in the production line or production lines.
Most factories would have a procedure for making checks during the manufacturer - and these could be along the lines of -
| Sieving for foreign bodies in food |
| Passing the raw materials under metal detectors |
| And even visual checks |
| Scales need to be checked at regular intervals |
| Fridges and freezers need to be checked for correct temperatures |
When raw materials arrive they need to be checked -
| Are they the items that were ordered? |
| Are they the right size - if large tomatoes were ordered for cutting into slices and small tiny tomatoes arrive - slight problem!! |
| Was the lorry that delivered the supplies at the right temperature - for example if they are delivering frozen items |
| Any torn or damaged packaging or broken cartons |
Usually a good manufacturer has a training programme in place to make sure that the workforce are skilled at the job they have been asked to do - this all goes towards making a better product.