Quality beef desired by consumers

Beef is graded on the basis of those characteristics that provide the best indication of its relative desirability to the consumer. Consumers desire the following qualities in beef:
Palatability. Palatability is influenced by the tenderness, juiciness and flavor of the fat and lean.

Attractiveness. The color of the lean, the degree of fatness and the marbling are leading factors in determining buyer appeal.

Moderate amount of fat. Fat finish and marbling were considered indicative to better eating quality. These factors affect the juiciness.

Tenderness. Consumers want fine grained, tender beef in contrast to coarse-grained, less tender meat. Pasture-fed beef is generally les tender and less desirable to consumers than beef from concentrate-finished cattle.

Pasture finishing cattle typically takes longer period of time and therefore results in greater age of the animal harvest which leads to decreased tenderness.

Small cuts

Repeatability. Housewife wants a cut of beef just like the one that she purchased last time, which calls for repeatability.

Ease of preparation.

Consumers who preferred Choice beef did so because of its advantages in palatability while those who preferred Select beef did so because of its advantages in leanness.

Higher quality beef products are desired in the hotel-restaurant and retail markets. Fast-food industry firms on the other hand, purchase lower quality beef products.
Quality beef desired by consumers

Manufacturing and food quality perception by consumer

The quality of a consumer product has two very different components. The manufacturer may believe that he is increasing the quality of a product by adding more meat to a meat pie or using fresh not frozen vegetable in formulating a quiche.

However is the consumer able to discriminate between standard and quality improved product and are they motivated by the proposition of such a quality improvement? This is the essence of the challenge when conducting sensory analysis: what are the sensory characteristics which translate into a perception of quality by the consumer that may increase propensity to purchase?

Although some work has been done in this area, it is still poorly understood. Ideally what is needed is a framework for product developer that does not need to be continually verified by expensive consumer research.

Along the food chain, manufacturers want to understand how to select raw materials that will impart the desired quality characteristics to the finished product. Although some raw materials characteristics can be linked, there is a general lack of understanding of how subtle differences in raw material can profoundly affect product quality.

Despite decades of research, there is still much to be learnt about impact of subtle changes have an effect is certain but molecular basis for this is far from clear. Understanding what is going on at a molecular level would allow either for a more informed selection of raw material or for an intervention in process that was dependent on the raw material feed quality.

Other examples include understanding what it is that causes milk functionality to change during spring flush. Despite little change in the gross composition, the functionality can change dramatically. Why?

When we tender steak, is there a better way of selecting it other than specifying which cut or measuring a textural characteristic? Is there a biochemical marker that translates into tenderness? Can we have meat that is both tender and flavorsome?
Manufacturing and food quality perception by consumer 

High quality of vegetables

The primary goal of the vegetable grower is to produce a product of such quality that it is attractive to the potential consumer in both appearance and taste.

High quality vegetables are free from damage or symptoms caused by disease and insects.

Plant diseases normally cause problem during period of cultivation, but there may problems also found during the time of marketing.

The profitable of qualities requires adequate growth, development, and yield of vegetable crops. In order to produce quality vegetables, plants must be supplied with the proper mineral nutrients.

However, the perception of quality changes as the product moves along the distribution chain.  Therefore, the maintenance of quality after harvest is an important issue to growers.

For leafy vegetables, the customer wants to buy a product with fresh, clean and green appearance, free from obvious defects and decay, not split or bolted and without pesticide residues.

The color probably contributes more to the assessment of quality than any other single factor.

Consumers have developed distinct correlations between color and the overall quality of specific products.
High quality of vegetables

Definition and meaning of quality assurance systems

A quality assurance system is a planned and systematic pattern of all actions necessary to provide adequate confidence that the item or product conforms to established technical requirements.

It is the sum total of all the things which contribute to ensuring the capability of the organization to deliver information which is for to be used for the purpose for which it is intended.

They include the inspection, testing, and monitoring activities of quality control programs, along with additional activities that are devoted to prevention of food safety hazards and quality defects.

The activities are integrated and interrelated to form a system. Quality assurance systems are intended to provide confidence to a food company’s management.

Quality assurance provides customers and consumers with the assurance that food quality food safety requirements will be met.

These quality systems include documents that describe operations and activities that directly relate to food quality and safety.

In companies that operate with quality management systems, the quality activities are integrated into the quality management system.

Quality assurance is an advisory function, not a police function. It is not responsible for the quality program, it does not operate the system, and it does not do quality control.
Definition and meaning of quality assurance systems

Food Safety and Consumers

Food safety is of paramount importance both for suppliers and consumers of food. Food safety assurance is therefore the primary objective for all quality assurance schemes, both statutory and voluntary consuming considerable company resources.

The Food Safety Act is designed to protect consumers from unsafe food as well as from food fraud, but food safety and other food standards cannot be separated completely.

Mislabeled products can constitute safety hazards as in the case of sheep’s milk (declared) yoghurt containing a proportion of (undeclared) cow’s milk.

This may threaten the life of a consumer with a serious cow’s milk allergy. Generally, in the eyes of consumers, food safety is an implicit quality attribute, i.e. they would not specifically demand “safe” food in shop or restaurant.

However, where a consumer does not have trust in their supplier, they will try to take charge of food safety, safety assurance themselves.

A customer at a butcher’s may decide not to purchase cooked meats there, e.g., if the shop fails to demonstrate effective procedures for the prevention of cross contamination of those meats via raw meats. 

Aspects of food quality besides safety are largely determined by individual preferences. The range and diversity of foods available to consumers today is considerable.

In fact, there are few foods that cannot be obtained by the individual with the time and money to pursue and acquire them. This means in principle, each consumer can be matched with his or her ideal foods. Whilst most would not go to such lengths, most people have their own individual mental lists of products that they would avoid under all circumstances.

As far as individual supermarkets are concerned, some might question exactly what level of product differentiation there really is.

On the other hand, it may be difficult for consumers with strongly held ethical values to choose food accordingly, e.g., meat from what they would perceive as cruelty-free production systems.

In this case, the difficulty lies with the poor state of the consumer information and advice systems that exist in the food area, and with the associated issue of food labeling.
Food Safety and Consumers

Conformity to Product : Food Quality and Consumer Value

Conformity to Product : Food Quality and Consumer Value
Conformity means the fulfillment of requirements. Both requirements of the product and those of the consumer need to be fulfilled.

Food Quality
Food quality relates to the quality attributes of the food and to the processes for making that food. Processes will have been designed to consistently achieve the required attributes within the parameters of the product specification. The assurance of product conformity to specification is one of the most important tasks of the technical function within food companies.

Consumer Value
Consumer value relates to the design of the food i.e., the types of value the consumer expects or desires from the product. It is for the marketing function to ascertain both the needs of the consumer and the context the products to be used.

There is closed relationships between food quality and consumer value and the need for the technical and marketing functions to cooperate in the realization of new products and in the management of existing products.

Both functions must be able to understand the nature of the consumer requirements as well as process capabilities and achievable product specifications. Supply problems, technological progress, changes in food law and changing consumer attitudes are example of situations where it may be necessary to substitute existing food ingredients in successful product lines.

Marketing input into both new and modified specification is imperative for successful change management.
Conformity to Product : Food Quality and Consumer Value

Food, Quality, Value and Consumer

Food, Quality, Value and Consumer
Conceptually, “quality” and “value” lie at the interface between the consumers mind processes and the object of the external world. Both are concerned with a consumer and an object and with interaction taking place between them.

Food value is slanted more towards the consumer and food quality towards the food, but there is an overlap. This interface, although critical is only one of several that are relevant to an understanding of consumer behavior in the area of food quality.

“Value” and the associated concept of “value”, and “consumer behavior” draw on several academic disciplines, both in the social and the natural sciences, for their theoretical underpinnings; yet there is no unified view of food quality and the consumer.

In fact, there is often a distinct lack of understanding, which tends to prevent effective communication between food professionals raised in the different academic traditions, and which can lead to difficulties in the business environment.

Food companies must understand the mental process that will cause consumers to develop perception of the finished products. Such perceptions engage with consumers’ motivational systems and therefore directly affect choices and other food related behavior.

As for marketing and communication strategies for novel foods and technologies, it is crucial that proper account is taken of the beliefs and attitudes of both consumers and the wider community.

Consumers are the final link of food supply chains, i.e., they are the end users. This does not mean that, in each case, the food shopper is the person who will consumes the food in the sense of eating it. For example, foods may be bought for other family or household members and as gifts.
Food, Quality, Value and Consumer