Private Sector Systems for Providing Quality Assurance: From “Good Practices” to HACCP to Total Quality Management

In recent years, there has been a marked evolution in private sector approaches to managing product quality. The food industry has been moving away from the traditional, largely reactive approach, focusing on end-product testing and “fire-fighting” to deal with quality problems, to a total quality approach emphasizing prevention and involvement of all personnel in providing customer satisfaction. A major quality objective is that of food safety. The set of tools for establishing food safety management systems include the “Good Practices” guidelines, “Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point” (HACCP) principles, and various guidelines for total quality management, such as the International Standards Organization (ISO) 9000-2000 set of standards. These can be seen as successive steps in implementing a food safety management system. Increasingly, these principles – and particularly the HACCP approach – are being taken into account by regulatory agencies, and incorporated into food safety legislation. This trend is relevant for developing country food suppliers, as they aim to satisfy customer requirements of food safety for local and export markets.