This summary was written in the academic year . It is based on the book, lectures and assignments. The book referenced to in the lectures is: Food Quality Management 2020 edition by Luning and Marcelis. Grade achieved: 7
Topics covered in the summary:
- Chapter 1-9 from the book Food Quality Ma...
Food Quality Management (FQD20306)
This summary was written in the academic year 2023-2024. It is based on the book, lectures and
assignments. The book referenced to in the lectures is: Food Quality Management 2020 edition by
Luning and Marcelis.
Introduction
This course resolved around the statement: “how to satisfy consumers”.
• What determines food quality and how do you manage this?
• How do food producers prevent, analyse and solve food safety and quality problems?
Special to this course
• Consumers are the starting point for food quality to be realized by food companies →
principles.
• Techno-managerial approach = viewing food quality from different perspectives.
• Analysis of food quality problems using existing models.
Prepare for exam
• Read all chapters, study the sub-learning outcomes
• Example exam questions
Chapter 1: introduction to food quality management
Sub-outcomes chapter 1
• Explain why producing high quality food is complex.
• Describe what food quality management is.
• Describe what quality is.
• Describe what food quality is from a product perspective.
• Describe what food quality is from a business perspective.
• Describe the technological and managerial kinds of variation that influence food quality.
• Describe the techno-managerial approach.
• Describe the three major challenges for food quality managers.
What is FQM?
• Describe what food quality management is.
Quality requirements and concern of consumers, customers, government, and other stakeholders
regarding food products, ingredients, packaging, and food production systems.
To comply with these quality requirements, Food Quality Management is there, aiming to realise
food quality in the agri-food production chain1 → combining Food Quality and Food Management.
Factors influencing FQM:
1
The chain in which people transform agricultural products into food products for use and consumption.
Ambiguity and uncertainty
• Explain why producing high quality food is complex.
Production of high food quality is complex and not completely predictable. The influence of each
factor on FQM can be:
• Ambigue = multiple meanings/open to more interpretations and possible mechanisms
• Uncertain = lack of information about phenomena/missing of obtainable facts
Food quality and safety issues are commonly due to a combination of multiple causes, and these
causes are often embedded in different systems. Because numerous factors, rooted in multiple
interconnected systems can influence food quality and safety, FQM is quite complex.
The outcome of FQM is not fully predictable because of the complexity of both food and human
(social) systems. Despite its complexity, people usually consider food quality a rather controllable
process and introduce straightforward mechanisms of control to manage the variation in outcome
(like HACCP). After implementation, it often appears that food businesses do not achieve the
intended results and there is a lack of understanding of the reasons why. One should, therefore,
acknowledge that complex systems are not fully predictable.
Because this business is so complex, the focus shouldn’t only be on technological factors, but also
management. Focus on Food Quality and on Quality Management to reduce variation in final food
quality. Food production involves a food system (food behaviour) and a human system (human
behaviour).
What is quality?
• Describe what quality is.
• Describe what food quality is from a product perspective.
• Describe what food quality is from a business perspective.
Quality = meeting or exceeding the customer and consumer expectations (p.24).
• Customer = those who receive a product or a service from a supplier within a food
production chain (business to business).
• Consumer = the ultimate purchasers or users of a food product or service.
Quality from a food product perspective = quality attributes are the result of various product
properties, which are noticeable by sensory observation or via communication, and in this way
contribute to quality perception and the experience of consumers and customers.
Quality from a business perspective = quality encompasses quality attributes related to both the
physical product and the organisation.
Food production from system perspective
Companies want to deliver the same high quality every time, but food production is subject to
variation (a natural variation of 10% is common in biological materials). Technological and managerial
aspects influence food quality during production. Sometimes there’s a combination of both (e.g.
broken machine caused by humans).
Technological variation = e.g. gas in chips packaging, broken machines
1. Food properties and decay processes → the food itself
2. Technological conditions and production activities → the production process
Managerial variation = e.g. food safety and quality culture, consumer trends, labelling, training
1. Human properties and their decisions → the human itself
2. The administrative conditions and management activities → the organisational processes
Techno-managerial approach
• Describe the techno-managerial approach.
• Describe the technological and managerial kinds of variation that influence food quality.
The techno-managerial approach in food quality management:
• Food system = the whole range of product properties and dynamic food processes.
• Food behaviour = the result of the outcomes of the food system over time.
• Human behaviour = the result of the decision-making outcomes of people (=human system)
over time.
• A food system is subject to a food production system = the whole range of production
activities and technological conditions necessary to realise the desired product properties.
• Techno-managerial approach = the integrative use of technological and managerial theories,
wherein technological theories are needed to explain food behaviour and managerial
theories to explain human behaviour.
Important questions
• What does high food
quality mean for your
favourite product?
• How does the production
process look like (i.e. the
system)?
• What kind of variation in
food quality might occur
due to food behaviour?
• What kind of variation in
food quality might occur
due to human behaviour?
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