Food Quality Management (FQD – 20306)
Chapter 1. Introduction to Food Quality Management
Learning goal (basis for the multiple-choice questions)
Food quality (FQ) and quality management (QM) are 2 basic components of FQM
General View
Food production Food quality management Food quality
Main challenges
Complexity Food-people interactions High quality requirements
1. Explain why producing high-quality food is complex.
There are many factors that place demands on agri-food businesses. Food quality and safety issues are commonly
due to a combination of multiple causes, complexity of food quality is due to ambiguity and uncertainty inherent
to the dynamic and complex character of food and human systems involved.
Ambiguity: more than one possible meaning, open to more than one interpretation.
Uncertainty: situation involving insecurity and/or unknown information. Lack of knowledge of obtainable facts.
What often happens in practice to deal with complex systems is the tendency to reduce it to a simpler system that
enable a more straightforward choice of solutions and manage the variation of outcomes (HACCP-ISO22000-etc.)
These quality/safety management systems often use procedures and control circles as mechanisms to control and
assure FQ, since complex systems are not fully predictable.
2. Describe what food quality management is.
Quality requirements and concerns of consumers, customers, government, and other stakeholders regarding food
products, ingredients, packaging, and food production systems.
,To comply with these quality requirements, Food Quality Management is there, aiming to realize food quality in
the agri-food production chain, in which people transform agricultural products into food products for use and
consumption → combining Food Quality and Food Management.
3. Describe what quality is.
Meeting or exceeding customer or consumer expectations.
Customer: those who received the product or service from a supplier within a food production chain. Consumer:
ultimate purchasers or users of a food product or service.
4. Describe what food quality is from a product perspective.
Basis for the selection and classification of quality attributes that are the result of various product properties,
which are noticeable by sensory observation or communication. It has 2 types of quality attributes, that can both
affect food product acceptance.
Intrinsic: inherent to the physical product.
Extrinsic: not necessarily a direct relationship with product properties but can affect consumers quality
perception.
, 5. Describe what food quality is from a business perspective.
Quality encompasses quality attributes related to both the physical product and the organization.
6. Describe the technological and managerial kinds of variation that influence food quality.
Food behavior is the result of the outcomes of food systems over time, a food system is subject to food production
system which is a whole range of production activities and technological conditions.
Complexity and variability encompass:
1. Heterogeneity of food products 2. Variation in composition and concentrations 3. Continues decay of quality
attributes 4. Interactions between food processes 4. Interactions of food materials with contact materials 5.
Dependance of food properties.
The food system is complex with dynamic and variable behavior.
Decision making is a complex and dynamic process influenced by the type of information, personal characteristics,
motivation and ability, also organizational conditions, conflicting interests, availability of information and power.
7. Describe the techno-managerial approach.
Advocates the importance of understanding the behavior of food and human systems and their interdependency.
Technological: involves discipline such as food microbiology, chemistry, process technology, food physics, human
nutrition, plant and animal science. That will enable analysis and understanding of variability and complexity of
food systems.
Management: psychology, sociology, economics, math and law that help analyzing and understanding people’s
behaviors within social, organizational and supply chain context.
, Managerial approach -> considers technological aspects as given facts.
Technological approach -> considers management as non-changeable boundary restrictions.
The techno-managerial approach in food quality management:
Food system = the whole range of product properties and dynamic food processes.
Food behavior = the result of the outcomes of the food system over time.
Human behavior = the result of the decision-making outcomes of people (=human system) over time.
A food system is subject to a food production system = the whole range of production activities and technological
conditions necessary to realize the desired product properties.
Techno-managerial approach = the integrative use of technological and managerial theories, wherein
technological theories are needed to explain food behavior and managerial theories to explain human behavior.
8. Describe the three major challenges for food quality managers.
Main challenges
Complexity Food-people interactions High quality requirements
