Friday, April 18, 2008

Importance of QA and QC

Quality control includes the inspection, testing and monitoring of raw materials, process control and finished products control. Quality assurance is more elaborate. It describes control, evaluation and audit of a food processing system. Other than monitoring QA programs, it includes other actions that prevent food safety hazards and quality defects. It includes documents that describe operations and activities that pertain to food quality and safety. This documents include product-specific manufacturing (PSM) documents, general manufacturing operation (GMO documents, quality control analytical (QCA) documents, good manufacturing practices (GMP) documents etc.

Benefits of proper QA/QC includes: reduction in consumer complaints, consistency of product both within and across manufacturing locations, and cost savings with decreases in rejected product.

References:

-http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6T6T-45YG5P7-1&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=b4e9cf8f5e41536072004be1f7644ee7
-Quality Assurance for the Food Industry: A Practical Approach By J. Andres Vasconcellos CRC Press 2004

-Quality Control In The Food Industry Vol. 1 S.M. Herschdoerfer Academic Press 1989

-Total Quality Assurance For The Food Industries Second Edition Wilbur A. Gould and Ronald W. Gould CTI Publications, Inc 1993

-Food Quality Assurance Principles and Practices Inteaz Alli CRC Press 2004

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