Quality Control Management System

Quality of milk and milk products is the composite of those characteristics, which differentiate individual units of milk and m ilk products. It include both desirable and undesirable characteristics. It is the responsibility of all those people who are involved in business of milk and milk products such as milk producers, handlers,

processors and also those who are involved in food services to ensure safety and quality of milk and milk products. Quality attributes can be divided in two categories. Sensory attributes and hidden attributes. Consumers of milk and milk products are able to asses only the sensory attributes. The hidden good or bad

attributes of quality have to be ensured by the suppliers of milk and milk products.To ensure the consumers of good quality product, various national and international agencies have formulated standards and enacted legislations. Over the years several food quality management systems have been evolved. Unlike quality control measures quality control management system or food safety management system have the capability to produce safe and consistently good quality milk and milk products.

The conventional quality control method, in which the quality of the fresh or processed food is tested just before distribution, though it has been very useful in ensuring food safety, is a postmortem exercise. This means that if the food at the distribution stage is found to be defective, there is no way to salvage it. In

order to overcome this drawback, new quality control management systems safety management systems have been evolved. These systems besides ensuring food safety, also enable production of products with no or minimum defects. We will be learning the basic aspects of some of these systems.