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Summaries of The principles of quality control

Quality control is the sum of all those controllable factors that ultimately influence positively or
negatively the quality of the finished product for example selection of raw materials, processing
methods or packaging, methods of storage distribution. The Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point
(HACCP) and Total Quality Management (TQM) embody these requirements as certified under the
International Standard Organization (ISO) 9000 series. Traditional quality control is completely
unable to eliminate quality problems, thus a preventive strategy based on thorough analysis of
prevailing conditions which ensures that objectives of the quality assurance program are met is
recommended for the food industry. This means that the work of quality control must be integrated
with the factory management plan. The factory must not be deprived of an essential raw material
while it awaits quality control clearance. On the other hand, production control, with its detailed
knowledge of movements of materials may provide information of value in improving quality
control's sampling methods. The aim of quality control is to achieve as good and as consistent a
standard of quality in the product being produced as is compatible with the market for which the
product is designed. It is apparent that traditional quality control is completely unable to eliminate
quality problems as such a preventative strategy based on thorough analysis of prevailing conditions
which provides assurance that objective of the quality assurance program are met. This situation
sometimes creates a mistrust or suspicion, which may be increased by an impression that the quality
control staff are a police force introduced by management to ensure that others are doing their job
properly. However, in practice it is seldom possible to guarantee complete control over raw materials
and processing conditions and thus a greater or lesser degree of finished product inspection will be
necessary, depending on circumstances within the factory. It is difficult to discuss raw material
control without reference to process control and it is also equally difficult to talk of process control
without assuming that proper raw material controls are simultaneously in operation and that the
dominant raw materials are known to have reached the standards required for proper processing.
Controllable factors that either positively or negatively influence the finished product are referred to
as the quality control. Pressures of production are invariable high and nothing brings a quality
control system more quickly into disrepute than delays while testing is carried out. In the
industrialized world, all food processing is linked to quality control. From these considerations, it is
tempting to speculate that in the 21st century, there will be a possibility of centralizing all forms of
control and using modern data processing methods to obtain an integrated picture of events at any
moment during the production schedule, and at the same time to provide continuous monitoring of
the schedule to allow very rapid adjustments to fluctuating demand and changing circumstances.
Quality control is one aspect of the overall control production which in its totality, constitutes the
management function. The success of any quality control system depends on the sympathetic interest
of top management. For medium and small scale, the quality control and production managers and
few supporting staff like sales and administrative managers should be enough. Identification of die
critical points is essential since the process control relates to die processing results of the raw
material. Quality control managers and supervisors can improve the date upon which yields are

calculated by using the knowledge of the properties of in-coming raw materials.In any product, there
is a dominant raw material (sometimes it could be several of these) upon which the quality of the
finished product is mainly dependent e.g. in bread production, flour is the essential raw material,
malt for beer, wheat for flour. A visit to the processing site to verify and fully understand the process
flow diagram is necessary facilities and equipment designs must be inspected to obtain information
on the possibility of additional hazard related to these aspects e.g. layout, traffic pattern of people,
equipment properly sized for volume of food to be processed.

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