Guaranteeing the safety of what we eat and drink
When I consider the safety and quality of what we eat and drink, I look no further than my own home: Every day, I have a responsibility to ensure my wife and two daughters have only the best quality and safest food available.
Mr. Manish Singh
Food Safety and Quality (FSQ) is essential to build long-term trust in a product or brand – and reflects my personal approach in my workplace – but in reality FSQ goes beyond any one individual, department or company.
FSQ involves us all
A former USDA Secretary Mike Johanns says, “Food safety involves everybody in the food chain”. A nation’s accountability for the safety and quality of the food and drink is shared by the government, food and beverage (F&B) companies, distributors and retailers and consumers themselves.
While all governments have authorities dedicated to establishing standards and monitoring FSQ, they need to collaborate with the private sector towards knowledge-sharing, and evolving methods and best practices, so that the relevant regulations and testing methodologies can be updated accordingly.
Government and businesses must work together to make sure consumers have access to reliable resources by establishing trusted FSQ standards and educating consumers on their responsibilities towards maintaining FSQ at home. These include simple household practices like food storage, including which foods need to be chilled, and how long products will keep after opening.
Ownership across the value chain
Sometimes the gap between the need to have food safety and quality at the core and the reality of getting there can be daunting. For me, it’s about breaking it down into two parts: Food Safety – ensuring our products are safe for consumption and quality – consistently meeting the high expectations on quality held by our consumers of pack and product.
In the F&B industry, gaps could occur across different aspects of the value chain – in the way suppliers work; the way products react at different points in the supply chain; the quality of ingredients used; and climate factors external to the company. Each of these gaps deserves ongoing, deep-dive conversations that this article cannot provide. However, holistic change can come through the application of “Quality by Design” – first outlined by a leading expert in quality, Joseph Juran.
In fact, this mindset allows teams to streamline a product’s entire life cycle through a rigorous food safety and food quality lens. It is what inspired me to evolve FSQ from a function in an organisation committed to compliance, to real ownership and end-to-end leadership across the value chain.
How does Quality by Design work?
When we go through the product innovation process we need to consider areas pertaining to FSQ – even before the product comes to life.
During the first two phases of the process – concept and feasibility – FSQ must be an essential part of idea screening and testing to ensure no potential risk later in its life cycle.
Next, the development phase involves multiple dimensions and a lot of comprehensive work to consider all aspects of the new product in light of FSQ. This involves three crucial areas:
1. Manufacturing: Any new infrastructure (machinery) required must undergo risk assessments and reviews in terms of FSQ compliance – as does the supplier that provides the machine.
2. Ingredients: Sourcing is paramount – all ingredients must be sourced from internationally reputed suppliers, who need to be approved via a rigorous auditing process.
Ingredients are assessed for compliance to internal FSQ standards that covers aspects like microbiological limits, heavy metal limits, allergen standards, non-GMO standards, regulatory compliance and relevant cultural expectations.
3. Packaging: Essential to offer protection that keeps food fresh, secure and free from spoilage. Like ingredients, all packaging must be sourced from credible, audited suppliers.
Companies such as Tetra Pak have led the way in packaging, developing cartons that are difficult to tamper with and at the same time free from adulteration.
Finally, consumer research, shelf life trials and transportation trials are all conducted to ensure that the products are protected in the external environment and preserve their freshness and taste!
Before the innovation formally hits the production line, all FSQ risk assessments are reviewed again and the new product is included in the business Food Safety and Quality Management System. The Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) certification is a third-party assurance of this system and instantly demonstrates a company’s commitment to producing safe food to the informed public.
“This comprehensive process forms the product’s unique Quality Plan, each stage designing the product to meet the highest quality standards.”
FSQ right to consumers doors
While it is tempting to believe that FSQ ends when the product leaves your manufacturing and storage facilities, the consumer’s main point of contact with the product remains the retail outlet. As such, the care taken during manufacturing must extend to distribution and selling.
For example, a consumer will think twice before purchasing a food product with damaged packaging, no matter how confident they are of the company’s manufacturing process. For those in the dairy industry, chilling products such as yoghurts and pasteurised milk properly through logistics and while on-shelf are just a couple of ways to ensure that the products stay high quality up to the point of purchase.
Post launch, it’s important to conduct an on-shelf quality audit to understand its performance out there in the real world. However, a company truly interested in continuously improving its standards will readily seek out consumer feedback through multiple channels, such as a consumer care hotline, two-way social media engagement and factory visits by the public.
In the end, we all aspire to provide health and happiness for our families. These same values must guide our industry as we meet the needs of consumers who trust us to deliver high quality, safe nutrition.
(The writer is Director for Research and Development, Food Safety, Quality and Nutrition for Fonterra Brands Sri Lanka).