Most industries have become reasonably sophisticated in terms of applying the principals and tools involved in quality control and improvement.
Unfortunately, food supply chain members have lived outside of the quality world and have not invested the time, training or money to learn and apply the disciplines needed to bring quality into preventive levels of control. Visual inspection in many industries has long ago been rejected as a means of quality improvement since it is expensive and does not focus on continuous improvement, causal analysis or prevention. Unfortunately the emphasis on visual inspection has dominated the food supply chain as marketers have worked diligently to improve how a product looks with relatively little regard to other factors. How a product looks is a marketing approach and provides no health, taste or safety protection since these more primary quality aspects impact overall quality. Early attempts at "food safety" evolved at times when little or poor technology was available to the non-existent food quality profession. Today's technology is continually exposing the weaknesses inherent in our stalled approach to a more comprehensive food safety strategy. This session is intended to show how to apply a highly successful quality system approach to the food safety arena. The emphasis is on how to begin to bring food safety professionals to a point where they can begin to understand, interpret and apply a proven quality system approach.
Unfortunately, food supply chain members have lived outside of the quality world and have not invested the time, training or money to learn and apply the disciplines needed to bring quality into preventive levels of control. Visual inspection in many industries has long ago been rejected as a means of quality improvement since it is expensive and does not focus on continuous improvement, causal analysis or prevention. Unfortunately the emphasis on visual inspection has dominated the food supply chain as marketers have worked diligently to improve how a product looks with relatively little regard to other factors. How a product looks is a marketing approach and provides no health, taste or safety protection since these more primary quality aspects impact overall quality. Early attempts at "food safety" evolved at times when little or poor technology was available to the non-existent food quality profession. Today's technology is continually exposing the weaknesses inherent in our stalled approach to a more comprehensive food safety strategy. This session is intended to show how to apply a highly successful quality system approach to the food safety arena. The emphasis is on how to begin to bring food safety professionals to a point where they can begin to understand, interpret and apply a proven quality system approach.
