Principles Of Quality Management Systems

The Meaning Of Quality

The term quality has been defined in many different ways, from simply ‘a measure of excellence’ to more analytically ‘a reduction of variation around the mean.

The definition could also be expanded to the following: ‘Quality is the outcome of the sum of all of the features and characteristics of a program, process, or service that impact their ability to meet or surpass the needs and requirements of a customer. Quality defines desirable characteristics of a product, a process, or a service. For the purposes of this learner guide, the term quality applies to that of the agricultural product.

In agricultural commodities, good or bad, is evident in the appearance and characteristics of the product. It, therefore, has to do with the perception and expectation of the customer, and like beauty, is something that is in the eye of the beholder.

Quality is therefore a relative concept, and a moving target, depending on various factors that may happen to influence customers’ expectations at any particular time. Thus, issues like the quality of competitors’ products, price and the demand/supply balance all influence the customers’ perception of the quality of a consignment or parcel of products at any given time.

Over a longer period, a particular source may develop a good quality reputation because it consistently meets or exceeds customer expectations. Consumers may come to associate this with a particular brand name and seek this in their purchases. This aspect is discussed further in the Marketing unit standard of this learning material.

Quality also refers to the extent to which the product is safe to eat. Food safety is not usually apparent to the eye. A situation can therefore exist where a product looks attractive, tastes good but is unsafe to eat because of high levels of chemical residues. Such a product could hardly be called ‘high quality. Thus, any reference to the term ‘quality in the fresh produce industry should also incorporate the concept of ‘food safety.

In the past, retailers used the quality of their fresh produce to differentiate themselves from their competition. Today, with the strong purchasing power of supermarket chains, it is said that quality is a given. This simply means that in order to participate in this market the supplier, or producer, must be able to virtually guarantee a certain minimum quality standard regardless of whatever problems or costs he may encounter in achieving this.

Quality Management And Standards

Quality cannot be inspected into a product. This is another way of saying that the process of quality inspection cannot improve a product nor guarantee that, in the case of a perishable product, it will not deteriorate subsequent to the inspection.

Quality management is, therefore, more about the practices, processes and procedures used to assure the quality of a product, otherwise known as quality assurance (QA), it is about merely inspecting the product at any moment in its passage through the trade chain, which is quality control (QC).

The QA procedures and practices followed while the fruit is developing on the tree are critical in determining the final quality of the product. This is because, by the time the fruit is ready for harvest, its internal quality is fixed. This means that there will be no perceptible change in the sugar or acid content of the fruit after harvest. The rind of the fruit will also by then have developed certain characteristics that will make it either more or less prone to physiological disorders or waste.

In the livestock industry, QA procedures are becoming increasingly focused on action. Most of the international and national markets dealing in meat etc. are forcing producers to up their enterprise’s quality procedures to ensure a more uniform product and to guarantee good market prices.

Climate and nutrition are the overriding factors determining the internal quality and predisposing fresh produce to post-harvest quality and condition problems. Since little can be done to modify the climate, practices should be directed at reducing the possible negative effects of unfavourable climatic conditions in a sustainable manner.

It is also important to have systems in place for tracking the quality of the product as it develops. In the case of quality defects to the rind caused by insect or disease damage, this can be achieved by adherence to pest and disease control programs based on the monitoring of pest and disease levels.

Once the product has been harvested and packed it has to be inspected, or quality controlled (QC), to determine its compliance with the South African minimum standards. The National Department of Agriculture (NDA), in conjunction with Perishable Products Export Control Board (PPECB) and various industry stakeholders, has developed these standards. The standards are updated annually and are aligned with importing countries’ standards.

These standards comprise a detailed list of more than 30 different minimum requirements applicable to the external appearance of the product and an equally detailed set of standards applicable to internal quality factors. Included here are phytosanitary standards that apply to certain pests and diseases whose symptoms indicate their presence in the orchard and which importing countries have banned or placed certain restrictions on.

From a quality management point of view, actions can be taken during production, being pre-harvest, to reduce the risk of food-borne hazards, to keep production interventions to a minimum, and that will go a long way towards assuring compliance of the end-product to the requirements of the market. These actions are achieved through the implementation of Good Agricultural Practices (GAP).

GAP includes the responsible use of pesticides, the reduction of soil, water and air pollution, worker health and hygiene, and facility sanitation. Various independent GAP systems have been developed as checklists for good agricultural practices. These practices, which are separate from importing government regulations, include Eurepgap.

In the mid-1990s, the Euro Retailer Group (EUREP), representing the leading European food retailers, agreed to accept and promote GAP. This was in response to increasing consumer interest in the impact of agriculture on food safety and the environment. Eurepgap was consequently established as a private non-profit organisation with its headquarters in Germany. In terms of Eurepgap requirements, suppliers, or producers, are required to demonstrate their commitment to:

• Maintaining confidence in food quality and safety.
• Minimising detrimental impact on the environment, whilst conserving nature and wildlife.
• Reducing the use of agrochemicals through the adoption of Integrated Production Systems.
• Improving the efficiency of use of natural resources such as soil, water air and energy; and
• Ensuring a responsible attitude to worker health and safety, welfare and training.

The Eurepgap standard comprises three categories of control points that require different levels of compliance. These are the major musts, (100% compliance required), minor musts (95% compliance) and shouldn't (recommendation level). The major and minor musts constitute most of the food safety-related aspects at the production sites with a strong emphasis on the regulation of GAP in the application of agricultural chemicals.

Good Manufacturing Processes (GMPs) provide the basic environmental and operational conditions that are necessary for the packing and/or processing of safe products. GMPs include packhouse sanitation, the design and layout of the facilities and equipment within the packhouse, and processes and controls. Such GMPs are required as the basis for a company wishing to implement Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) programs.

HACCP is a systematic approach to the identification, evaluation and control of food safety hazards involved in the process flow of a product, and can be applied not only to the packhouse but to any other segment of the trade chain, such as production, harvesting, distribution, etc.

The seven principles of HACCP are the following:

1. Identification and measurement of hazards.
2. Identification of critical control points.
3. Establishment of preventive measures with critical limits for each control point.
4. Establishment of procedures to monitor the critical control points.
5. Establishment of corrective actions to be taken when monitoring shows that a critical limit has not been met.
6. Establishment of procedures to verify that the system is working properly; and
7. Establishment of effective record keeping documents.

It is clear from the above that formal QA and QC systems and procedures are required for the successful production of export commodities. The more specialised the market requirements are, the more effective the QA and QC procedures need to be. The higher-paying markets are usually those requiring proof of compliance to their specific quality standards. The producer needs to analyse the costs involved in meeting the quality standards of the different market segments available to him. Such cost/benefit analyses will assist the producer to decide on the overall strategy of his enterprise.