547Chapter 31
Quality Assurance
Friedrich - Karl L ü cke
Introduction
According to the ISO 9000:2005 standard,
quality assurance (QA) is “ a set of activities
intended to establish confi dence that quality
requirements will be met. ” In contrast, quality
control (QC) is “ a set of activities intended
to ensure that quality requirements are actu-
ally being met. ” Both QA and QC are parts
of quality management (QM). This chapter
discusses how meat processors should make
sure that the consumer receives foods that
meet his/her expectations in terms of safety
and quality. From the ISO defi nition of
quality ( “ The set of characteristics of an
entity that give that entity the ability to satisfy
expressed and implicit needs ” ), it follows
that the manufacturers must also assure the
“ process quality ” their customers expect.
Criteria for assessment of process quality
include environmental issues (less input of
energy and water, less output of waste
and climate - relevant trace gases), animal
welfare, social aspects (regional food pro-
duction, social responsibility of food busi-
nesses to their suppliers, their employees,
and society), and the use (e.g., according to
kosher or halal rules) or avoidance of certain
processing methods (e.g., ionizing irradia-
tion, gene technology). Since different pro-
cesses may not always lead to differences
distinguishable by physical, chemical, micro-
biological, or sensory analyses, an effective
control of material fl ow throughout the
supply chain of these “ identity - preserved
products ” (Vasconcellos 2004 ) is important.
With relevance to quality assurance in the
meat sector, there is a wealth of offi cial regu-
lations, guidelines (e.g., the Code of Hygienic
Practice for Meat issued by the Codex
Alimentarius Commission [ 2005 ]), standards
(e.g., ISO norms 9001 and 22000 ), and speci-
fi cations developed by industrial and retail
organizations as the driving force (e.g.,
Codes for Good Hygienic Practice, notifi ed
and registered with the European Commission
according to article 8 of Regulation [EC]
852/2004 ; standards benchmarked by the
Global Food Safety Initiative). Most of these
documents focus on meat safety and specify,
among other things, that the processor must
implement and maintain a system of food -
safety assurance. However, the purpose of
many regulations and standards is also to
protect the consumer from being misled (in
particular, by inadequate labeling on weight,
composition, shelf life, nutritive value,
origin, and production method) and to ensure
fair competition. Obviously, it does not make
sense that a meat processor installs different
systems to assure safety, traceability, compli-
ance with other standards, and sensory
quality. Rather, the documents for control-
ling a given process step should cover all
criteria of product quality.
For information on the implementation
and maintenance of HACCP in meat process-
ing, the reader is referred to offi cial docu-
ments (e.g., the Generic HACCP models
issued by the U.S. Food Safety and Inspection
Service [USDA - FSIS 1999a ]) or the relevant
literature (Brown 2000a, b ; Sheridan 2000 ;