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Quality Issues in Food Factories

Producing food in mass quantity is an amazing feat. A bakery may produce 10,000 loaves of bread per day, or a wine maker may produce 5,000 bottles per day. Controlling quality, especially food safety, is difficult in a mass production environment. Because of the difficulty, industry professionals have investigated the quality control field extensively, and share their findings with all concerned.

  1. Food Pathogen Issues

    • First and foremost is the quality safety issue of food pathogens. Pathogens is the correct term for viruses and bacteria. Some pathogens can just cause a cold, whereas others, such as E. coli, cause severe food ailments up to and including death. For this reason, all food processing plants must adhere to the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) guidelines for Good Manufacturing Practices. This list of practices is extensive, but these mandates must be instituted. For example, in the meat industry, a cleaning and sanitizing procedure must be in place to ensure a hygienic product.

    Food Consistency Issues

    • Ideally, every batch must be the same day in and day out. This includes size, shape and taste. For a large facility, this means every loaf of bread or every bottle of beer must taste the same as the one made before and after it. Facilities typically take random samples of the products as they travel down the assembly line. If the samples waver from a fixed standard, steps are taken to bring it back in line. One company, Gold Medal Bakeries, states it has a complete quality control department overseeing the consistency and quality of its breads.

    Incoming Quality Issues

    • Quality issues do not start and stop at the facilities doorstep. Rather, quality issues start right from the ground up, literally. It starts at the farms the facility contracts with. Suppose a tomato sauce producer receives a batch of tomatoes at the dock and inspection reveals many of the tomatoes are rotted or have worms. The facility rejects the batch, and the entire plant is held up until a good batch arrives. For milk processing facilities, government regulations, such as the state of Ohio regulations, require the testing of incoming milk for chemicals.

    Outgoing Quality Issues

    • After the finished product leaves the processing plant, quality issues are still at stake. Suppose a dairy ships a truck load of ice cream. Through carelessness, the trucking company allows the ice cream to get warm, and the batch spoils. Many large producers are aware of outgoing quality concerns, so they work closely with shippers and retailers to ensure quality from the shipping dock to the table.

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