Specifications in food safety program

All manufactured ingredients and products have defects no matter how well a organization attempts to prevent product defects. Food safety program is to ensure compliance with laws and regulations in the development of food specification.

A specification is an explicit set of requirements to be satisfied by a material, product or service. Should a material, product or service fail to meet one or more of the applicable specifications, it may be referred to as being out of specification.

Finished product specifications of ingredient/product manufacturers are more easily established because the manufacturer should develop the internal specification and provide it to the user in order to enable their compliance to the product purchased.

Nonconforming materials and products may be considered any material or product that does not meet specifications or that for whatever reason (damage, leaking, code date, etc) is not acceptable for use or shipment to the customer.

These items must be clearly labeled as hold and stored in a segregated area that protects them from inadvertent use or shipment.
Specifications in food safety program

Food Safety Program

Food safety is defined as a finished product that does not contain a food hazard when used according to its intended use. It is a set of actions and systems designed to minimize the occurrence of food safety hazards within a food production, processing and preparation facility.

The food safety program focused in the identification of hazards and management of the hazards in all business functions is the most important means to ensure food safety within a food retail business.

Food safety must be its priority and this priority should be defined in a written food safety policy statement that addresses all possible hazards establish control measures and specifies corrective actions.

If a food business is required to have a food safety program, it must examine all of its food handling operations in order to identify those food safety hazards that might reasonably be expected to occur and prepare a written safety program to control these hazards.

The program must include controls for the identified safety hazards, ways to monitor the controls are working and steps to be taken when a hazard is not under appropriate control.

Food safety standards may be established by governments, industry groups and individual companies.

All the activities in a food safety program have the ultimate goal of preventing the physical, chemical and biological contamination of a product so the food would not cause harm or sickness to the consumers who eat it.
Food Safety Program 

Top Down Quality Management

Top Down Quality Management
Every company whether it is large or small, old or new or produces few or numerous products has a defined management structure. Someone, the top decision maker, is ultimately responsible for everything that occurs at the company.

In addition to determining the direction of the company, the top decision maker must decide the company’s standard of quality.

What will be acceptable? What defects are allowed and what are not? Are there set quality specification or are the finished product specifications moving targets? Will there be a quality program? Who is responsible for quality program? All these questions are underlying component of one of the most decisions made at management’s highest level.

In most companies, the quality program is overseen by a single individual usually titled quality control manager, quality assurance manager, technical services director, vise president of quality, or something similar denoting the area responsibility and level of accountability.

This person traditionally is schooled in a science discipline such as food science and technology, foods and nutrition, microbiology, or holds an interdisciplinary degree that encompass classes in microbiology, food safety, nutrition, chemistry, biochemistry and engineering.

He or she is tasked with the responsibility of creating a quality control program that is multifaceted, customer, supplier, government and competitor interactive, interdisciplinary, nontechnology based but technology supported and internal interdepartmentally, supportive.

Each food manufacturing company has its own culture and identity based on many factors, including age, location, products, ownership structure and knowledge and experience of employees.

Although each factor contributes to the structure and function of the quality department, the role and responsibility of bringing ides that improve or support the quality unction of the company to the table lie almost exclusively with the quality control manager who is to seek out, analyze and implement new concepts and technologies that replace or strengthen existing quality control systems.
Top Down Quality Management