What’s the difference between food quality control and quality assurance?

Food manufacturers are on the front line of public health when it comes to food safety. Get it wrong and the consequences can be fatal.

The Food Standards Agency estimates that there are about 2.4 million cases of foodborne illness in the UK every year. Furthermore, researchers estimated that 180 people die every year in Britain after eating contaminated food.

There are many contaminants and product defects to be aware of when processing food – ranging from salmonella and listeria to glass shards and bone fragments. If consumed, any of these could cause serious harm – or even death.

It is therefore imperative that every food processor puts in place effective quality control and quality assurance protocols.

It is vital to have food safety management procedures that are appropriate for your business. Suppose your HACCP audit determines that metal is likely to be the only contaminant to be found. In that case, the installation of a metal detector is likely the best and most cost-effective solution.

If you identify a potential risk from any other contaminants like glass, mineral stone, high-density rubber or plastics, installing an x-ray inspection machine is the practical solution.

Modern metal detectors can locate all metals, including ferrous (chrome, steel) and non-ferrous (brass, aluminium), as well as magnetic and non-magnetic stainless steels.

X-ray systems go a step further by offering the capability to detect metal, as well as non-metallic contaminants such as glass, mineral stone, calcified bone, high-density plastics and rubber compounds. They can also simultaneously perform a wide range of in-line quality checks such as checking for damaged product or packaging.

Having in place an Equipment Maintenance Plan is also a vital part of your quality assurance protocol.

Broken or poorly maintained machinery is one of the biggest causes of product defects. Pieces of equipment can break off and enter food products during processing if equipment is poorly maintained, so routine or preventive maintenance, and other periodic checks of equipment, are essential to minimise the risk from this safety issue.

In addition to product inspection and equipment maintenance, hygiene is crucial for the quality control process. So, as part of your quality assurance protocol, it is essential to consider whether your production line machinery is sanitarily designed. Food processing machines that are designed with hygiene in mind are more easily cleanable, durable and less likely to harbour contaminants.

When purchasing new equipment, hygienic design should be one of the deciding factors in the decision-making process. Equipment that is easy to disassemble, for example, will be far easier for cleaning crews. This too will help you meet your quality assurance protocols.

In addition to ensuring your equipment is hygienically designed, it is also crucial to set up well-defined personnel hygiene practices to avoid user contamination.

Quality assurance challenges

The two biggest challenges to achieving excellent quality assurance are human error and a lack of commitment by senior management and line managers.

Companies that use many automatic and semi-automatic machines have the advantage of setting more stringent processes and control mechanisms, meaning there is less chance of human error.

A minimal investment in quality tools, resistance to change, and lack of commitment by teams and departments to QA applications can also be challenging.

What is food quality control?

Quality control involves testing products to ascertain whether they meet required food safety regulations and customer requirements. Quality control (QC) is a reactive process and aims to identify and rectify the defects in finished products.

It can be achieved by identifying and eliminating the sources of issues to ensure customers’ requirements are continually met. It involves the inspection aspect of quality management.

While quality control systems are essential at the end of the food manufacturing process, it may be necessary – and indeed preferable – to install QC control points at other stages in your production line.

It depends on the types of potential sources of foreign bodies and contaminants that you may encounter in your particular business. Things to look out for include metal, glass, stone, bones, dirt and pests, mycotoxins and pesticides.

How to implement best-practice quality control

To establish yourself as a good and reliable brand, you must follow the proper procedures for quality control to identify and correct any defects in finished products.

Using the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) system, discussed above, is a sensible first step – as with quality assurance. This will help you establish where you need to install contaminant detection systems such as metal detectors and x-ray machines in your production line.

However, when it comes to the finished product, for complete peace of mind, the gold standard is to set up x-ray inspection processes.

This will enable you to ensure that you are maintaining quality standards in the final product. Various tests may be carried out at this stage, including physical examinations, visual observations, chemical tests, microbiological testing and so on.

Another – increasingly important – factor to consider is how to efficiently and accurately collect real-time data, , in real-time, so that it can be analysed and any issues quickly corrected.

Quality control is an essential aspect of the food industry, and the procedures need to be implemented and managed across various stages including sourcing, processing and packaging.

Apart from complying with the laws and regulations regarding nutritional value, companies must also adhere to shelf-life requirements, taste, use of preservatives, labelling, and many more factors. To meet customers and regulators’ demands, food manufacturers must follow the guidelines and take necessary measures to maintain quality standards.

Quality control challenges

Ensuring that your food processing plant complies with quality control standards involves co-operation and the sharing of information from the raw material suppliers to those responsible for the finished, packaged product. Suppliers, logistics firms, all staff on the production line, and management, must be aligned to achieve excellent quality control standards.

Given the scale of the challenge, and what’s at stake in terms of customer satisfaction and consumer safety, it’s vital to agree your QC processes and have them set down in writing. Then everyone knows what they need to do, and managers can monitor compliance among employees.

However, business owners and managers will need to provide training so that employees at every stage of the manufacturing process are armed with the knowledge they need to operate inspection and processing machinery correctly, keep it clean and sanitised, and adhere to personal hygiene standards.

To overcome challenges, your quality control team should work in tandem with the appropriate regulators to ensure that the official food safety law is understood and that legal standards are met.

The continuing effects of Covid-19 on quality control and quality assurance

It is nigh on impossible to underestimate the impact of Covid-19 on the UK’s food manufacturing sector. Commitment to quality and safety from senior management is the first requirement of the Global Standard for Food Safety.

Managers must focus on establishing a clear plan for the maintenance and improvement of their company’s food safety and quality culture and provide the necessary equipment and training to ensure rules are adhered to.

Installing the very best inspection systems will help maintain the UK and EU’s stringent safety standards. X-ray inspection is the gold standard, providing not only the ability to detect metal contaminants but a wide range of foreign ingredients that could cause serious harm to consumers – or even death. While this is the worst-case scenario, product recalls, production line downtime and even the closure of an entire factory is expensive – in terms of brand reputation, consumer trust, cash flow interruption, legal fees and so on. In the worst cases, factories are forced to close for good. In other words, a commitment to quality pays.

Ensuring your products are safe for end consumers is of vital importance. This means you need to pay close attention to things such as hygiene, keeping machinery scrupulously clean and identifying unwanted or dangerous ingredients in the production line.

Yamato only provides equipment that aims to bring the highest level of quality and safety to your output. With the right solutions, you can effectively manage your quality assurance and control processes for optimal results.