CHAP 7 : Quality Assurance

Question 1

What are some indicators of quality of food and what do they mean? [5]

Answer 1

1. Chemical qualities : presence of nutrients and absence of undersirable chemicals (whether intrinsic/foreign)
2. Physical qualities : absence of physical contaminants, like metal earrings in food etc
3. Microbiological qualities : microbiological load of food / types of pathogenic bacteria present
4. Sensory quality : taste, flavour, texture, colour etc
5. Nutritional quality : nutrition content, bioavailability of products must be present.

Question 2

Microbiological and chemical content usually refers to the safety of the food. True or False?

Answer 2

True

Question 3

What is meant by B2B and B2C?

Answer 3

B2B : When food is sold from business to business.

B2C: When food is sold from business o consumer.

Question 4

What method can be used to determine the presence of underiable chemicals in foods?

Answer 4

Usage of modern analytical instruments (can detect and quantify specific chemial componeenets to the level of PARTS PER BILLION)

– often involves separation compound of interest followed by detection –> but there are many methods that do not require separation, such as titraton.

Question 5

What methods can be used to detect or prevent physical contamination? [2]

Answer 5

1. E.g : metal detector to detect metal in food
2. Put a system in place to prevent physical contamination (as it is challenging to detect all physical contaminants)

Question 6

Most methods to look at the microbiological load of food involves culturing of bacteria. True or False?

Answer 6

True.

Bacteria culturing :
- for solid foods, dilute them into liquid and drip them on petri dish
- Incubate the petri dishes at the temperature you want (e.g. 37 deg cel to simulate avg human body temp)
- The bacteria colony count represents the microbiological load

Question 7

Other than the 3 main qualities of taste, odour and texture, what other sensory qualities contribute to consumer’s satisfaction of a food? [2]

Answer 7

1. Hearing, such as the sound of crunching potato chips
2. Appearance, including the colour of food, visual defects etc

Question 8

How can we measure sensory qualities :
1. colour of food
2. visual defects
3. Textural properties (chewiness, viscocity)
4. Aromatic (smell)
5. Flavour

Answer 8

1. By using a colorimeter / spectrophotometer : measures physical properties of reflected light and transforms those readings into values that can be related to consumer perception of colour
2. Machine vision systems with video cameras
3. Using machinery, like texture analyser and viscometer

4.
- Aromatic parts can be separated out of volatile compounds via chromatography.
- Electric noses can determine how similar products on a line are to each other / to a standard

5. • Markers can be identified → one / several compounds used as a representative of combination of compounds responsible for a flavour perceived, and test those compounds chemically –> Machinery such as refractometers to measure degree Brix of fruit juices, which is related to sugar content.

• Sensory testing in labs, asking humans to taste the product. Preference test to find out which product is the best.

Question 9

What does quality management encompass? [2]

Answer 9

1. Quality assurance
2. Quality control

Question 10

Quality Management defines quality in terms of..?

Answer 10

Consumer aceptability

Question 11

What is the definition and idea behind quality assurance (QA)?

Answer 11

QA considers all parts of the process in making food to ensure and be confident that quality requirements are met.

• Idea : if the process is done correctly, then the final product will be safe and of good quality.

Question 12

What is the definition and idea behind quality control (QC)?

Answer 12

Quality control : Ensures that a product is safe, wholesome and of good quality.

Consistent quality is achieved by INSPECTION of the final product, and taking out the defective products

• Note: inspecting every item is impossible and impractical thus food is statistically sampled.

Question 13

QC encompasses the analytical method. True or False?

Answer 13

True

Question 14

What are the aspects that are important in the analytical method and what do they mean?

Answer 14

1. Trueness : Closeness of the average of a set of measurements to the true value
2. Accuracy (ISO def) : Trueness + precision. High accuracy = high trueness + high precision
3. Precision : The DEGREE to which repeated measurements under UNCHANGED CONDITIONS show the same results
4. Uncertainty : Quantitative measure of precision. Small uncertainty : high precision and vice versa

Question 15

In the analytical method, it is important to repeat analysis. True or False?

Answer 15

True
- It is important as reptition of analysis gives us an accurate value.

• in QC, there might be more than one person performing it, method needs to be performed exactly by the person who documented the results.
• All the other personell conducting the test must be trained to ensure that the result is reproducible when conducted at any time.

Question 16

What is statistical process control (SPC)?

Answer 16

SPC involves measurement of the effectiveness of a process/unit operation based on the idea that by doing everything right in each operation of the process, the final product will be good.

• It is a part of the process of quality assurance.

Question 17

What is statistical process control (SPC)?

Answer 17

SPC involves measurement of the effectiveness of a process/unit operation based on the idea that by doing everything right in each operation of the process, the final product will be good.

• It is a part of the process of quality assurance.

Question 18

What is the name of the approach which monitors “process outputs” and is used in QC?

Answer 18

Statistical Quality Control

Question 19

What is the purpose of a food safety management system?

Answer 19

To identify, prevent and reduce food-borne hazards, ensuring that food is safe for consumption

Question 20

What is the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP)?

Answer 20

It is a systematic approach to prevent biological, chemical and physical hazards in food establishments.

Question 21

What is a critical control point (CCP)?

Answer 21

It is a step at which control can be applied and is essential to PREVENT OR ELIMINATE a food safety hazard or REDUCE it to an acceptable level.

Question 22

What are the 3 main aims of HACCP?

Answer 22

1. To destroy, eliminate or reduce hazards
2. Prevent recontaminaton
3. Inhibit growth of harmful microbes and limit toxin production.

Question 23

What are the 7 main principles of HACCP?

Answer 23

1. Identify all potential hazards.
2. Identify all the CCP which can eliminate, prevent or reduced hazards identified.
3. Establish critical limits for each CCP.
4. Establish methods to minotor the CCP to ensure that it is under control.
5. Establish corrective actions should there be any non-compliance.
6. Establish some kind of verification system to ensure plan is working as intended.
7. Estalish documentation and record keeping system.

Question 24

What are the 3 benefits/successes of HACCP?

Answer 24

1. With quality management in place, the products is at its best quality as defined by the food company
2. HACCP focuses on where safety problems are most likely to occur, reducting the need for extensive inspection and sampling
3. Highly successful in identifying and minimising hazrds in processed foods.

Question 25

What are the disadvantages of HACCP?

Answer 25

Though food is at its best quality and consumers may purchase it, this does not mean consumers will like the food produced.

(other factors which contribute decision in buying a product include influence by marketing tactics / preconceived ideas etc)

Question 26

What is consumer acceptability?

Answer 26

It is the willingness to buy and eat a product.

Question 27

What are the steps in testing onsumer acceptability?

Answer 27

1. Determine segment(s) of ppulation interested in the product
2. Develop a test that presents consumers with one or more simiar products, ask them if they like it (most scientists use a nine-point svale that ranges from like extremely to dislike extremely)