THE HISTORY OF ISO 9000 FAMILY

Quality

The preparation work of some international standards is made through technical committees of ISO (The International Organization for Standardization) that is the World Federation of National Bodies of Standardization.

There are technical committees that vote to prepare and approve international standards. The international standard requires the approval of at list 75% of members with the right to vote. ISO 9000 was prepared by the Technical Committee ISO/TC 176 Management and Quality Assurance, subcommittee SC 1, concepts, and terminology.

The beginning of standardization started at the end of the XIX century with the Industrial Revolution due to the need to produce more and better. The biggest boost started in the first world war since the army needed armory, so private institutions intervened, and mandatory interchangeability and accurate changes were requested.

On December 22nd, 1917, the German engineer Naubus and Hellmich created the first organism working with standards: the German Industry Standards Committee (NADI); this organization started to issue standards under the acronym: NADI meaning (the German Industry Standard). In 1926, NADI changed its name to DNA: German Standards Committee.

Rapidly started other national committees in industrial countries like France and England. When these national bodies of standardization appeared, the need to coordinate their work and experiences started, having this in mind, in London 1926 was created the National Standardizing Association (ISA), later replaced by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) at Ginevra which depends on the ONU.

The first standard in ISO 9001 family is ISO 9001, Quality Management Systems and Requirements, created to help all types of organizations to implement and operate efficient systems of quality management. However, in 1994, ISO 9001 was managed by organizations working with the production process, therefore, the implementation of this standard in service companies was very difficult; then a review made in 2000 got a suitable standard for all types of organizations, applicable to service companies and even public administration. Then, two other reviews were conducted in 2008 and a valid version was issued in 2015.

ISO 9000 family currently formed by:

ISO 9000:2015

Describes fundaments of the quality management system and specifies its terminology.

ISO 9001:2015

States the requirements for quality management systems applicable to an organization that needs to demonstrate their capacity to provide products complying with the client’s requirements and regulations applicable to it, to increase the client’s satisfaction.

ISO 9004:2009

Provides guidelines that consider efficiency and effectiveness in the Quality Management System. The objective of this standard is to improve the organization’s performance, client satisfaction, and other interested parties.

ISO 19011:2011

Provides training for environment and quality management system audits. These are part of a coherent set of standards of Quality Management System facilitating mutual comprehension in national and international trade. Its application leads companies that aiming to:

  • Have the advantages of a quality management system implementation.
  • To trust on suppliers and its requirements to produce satisfaction.
  • Users of its products.
  • Have people interested in a mutual understanding of the terminology of quality management (for example suppliers, clients, and regulatory bodies).
  • Have people that evaluates or audits quality management systems.
  • Advise those who provide information about the quality management system.
  • Have experts who develop related standards.

There are a lot more companies that had implemented certifications with the ISO 9001 family. ISO 9001 is at the top of certifications rank with 103, 3936 certified companies under this standard in 2015. China is the country with the greater number of certifications with 29% after Italy and Germany. Mexico is in the 30th position of this list with 75000 certified companies, this means we still have a long way to go, encouraging the culture of quality in services and products.

The differance between sustainability and support

Environmental

When discussing environmental and ecological matters, these two terms appeared, supported and sustainable development, both alternatives when talking about the future for a possible sustainable and supported development.

These terms can apply in the economy, ecology or development, and social liability. Supported and sustainable development are considered synonyms. Based on their meaning, the dictionary tells us these words are synonyms, but their use is different like if they were connected but different.

A common use of these terms is that both talk about a process that won’t affect the current or future generation since this process shall endure over time without reducing the existing resources.

We can find the following definition of both:

Support

Etymologically, sustainability refers to support, meaning that someone or something external appears and supports. Therefore, sustainability is found on the external or exogenous side of a system. Inside this external side, there are government policies, environments, agreements, competences, markets, among others. Therefore, when we talk about a sustainable organization, it means opportunities and threats that might exist out-site the system to maintain it.

An example of supported development is renewable energy by human intervention helping us to produce energy sources without compromising our environment and future generations.

Sustainable

On the other hand, to be sustainable corresponds to an endogenous system, meaning, everything related to maintaining a system, the weaknesses and straights of an internal level. This type of development doesn’t need human or external intervention due to its economic, social and environmental conditions, affording to stand on its own without affecting the resources.

Within an organization be sustainable means to establish capacities, raw material, labor, the intangible and everything related to its existence, development, and growth; a sustainable model will not only survive on its own but will feed and maintain involved people. So now that you know the differences, and from an ecologic perspective, for a system to be sustainable and supported shall comply with a set of principles, and some of these are the following:

If you don’t know if a system or proposal is sustainable or supported, think if the system focuses on human intervention, meanwhile the other definition is about self-sufficiency. Finally, both go into the future and interdependent. Therefore, a good strategy must be sustainable and supported over time.

Sources: Quality blog, Universia

7 technology tools to improve the quality of customer service

Quality

We live in a time that most people see technology as quality attention, accessibility, individualization, and reliability.

Clients’ needs grow rapidly and at the same time replying time decreases and competence rises. The standardization of products turns customer care the focus of companies.

Contemporary consumers indicate the path for the attention they want to receive; nowadays everybody is on social media and mobile interaction, so according to the report “State of Multichannel Customer Service” of Microsoft, 90% of consumers request an easy experience where they can find coherence and continuity among the different channels they used; also, according to “The mandate of intelligent customer service” of Forrester Consulting, about 2.7. of users search different channels.

Microsoft report, which we had mentioned before concludes that four channels are often used: email (82%), phone (72%), chat (58%), online self-service and frequent questions (56%).

How can we get this software and offer customer service according to our client’s?

Currently, there are different programs to achieve efficiently customer service further, this enables us to know their needs and offer a better-quality experience.

Next, we will present 7 technology tools to improve your company’s work:

1. CRM or Customer Relationship Management

A useful tool focused on multichannel meaning that within the same platform includes, logistic and client management procedures. You can fit the CRM to your needs, there’s currently a variety on the market to customize the company’s needs. Having a bigger agenda that gathers client’s information, automates publicity delivery, separated by a campaign, and provides internal and external process indicators.

2. The cloud

The cloud is one of the main technology breakers that extends a greater competitive advantage to small and medium companies searching for this trend since this gives software solutions to a lower price. Working on the cloud gives to companies an important value to their work. Cloud computing enables users to efficiently communicate, share knowledge, and organizes an optimal way to store or find information.

3. Social media

In the beginning, social media was only for entertainment but nowadays is a lifestyle adopted by people that have taken the media as a connection. Facebook, Fans page, Facebook groups, Twitter or Instagram are the most popular ones, among clients to keep reports and clients. The goal is to provide the relevant content or onsite messages, by helping them to straighten their condition. Other options are Periscope, Pinterest, Vine, LinkedIn, among others.

4. Automatic Marketing Email

These email campaigns are a strategic way companies used. Platforms are helping to do this on a greater scale in minutes. Using this technology to improve reply processes, instant messaging like the following: publicity, reports and any other source of files.

5. WhatsApp

At the beginning was considered as an informal way of communication, but currently is one of the best wats to do campaigns among clients, provide reports to potential clients. Also, there are other tools like whatsappend and WhatsApp marketing.

6. Live chat

There are some services or products which you need to speak with someone to get an explanation or guide the purchase decision, therefore it is ideal to have a live chat to assist and help clients and likely clients; some recommended applications are Zopim, Purechat, Smartsupp.

7. Geolocation

Almost every current app uses geolocation. This tool enables companies to implement actions from their apps to the customer in different locations. Using geolocation, companies obtain information about their purchase processes and real-time consumer habits. By implementing these technology tools will bring advantages and noticeable improvement, by measuring the client’s satisfaction, 365 days, 24 hours client interaction, process automation, and marketing actions and customize communication.

FOOD ALLERGENS

Harmlessness

Recently, food allergies have prevailed, awakening people’s interest. Currently, about 2-4% of adults and 6% of kids suffered a any type of food allergy. Even though we have more information than ever about food causing allergies, this matter is still a complex and difficult topic.

What provokes a food allergy?

The immune system protects the body from outer damaging proteins by eliminating them from the system. When the immune system doesn’t work properly reacts to a natural substance as a threat (an allergen). When a real allergic reaction occurs, the body produces antibodies (correlating proteins with allergens neutralizing and eliminating them from the body). There are many types of antibodies, but those related to food allergies are known as immunoglobulins E (IgE). The IgE antibody joins the allergens and triggering an allergic reaction.

During an allergic reaction, the IgE activates a molecule’s segregation into the bloodstream at the same time triggers common symptoms of food allergies, like skin rashes, lip inflammation, nausea, abdominal pain, swelling, vomit, and diarrhea. Fortunately, most food allergic reactions are not severe and rarely jeopardize life.

Is this intolerance or allergy?

Even though a lot of people talks about food allergies or allergic reaction related to any unpleasant reaction after eating, in many cases, this is just an intolerance or dislike. Real allergic reactions happen after eating, activating the immune system producing IgE. Food intolerance symptoms usually take time to show up, there’s no immune reaction and includes swelling, diarrhea or constipation. An example of intolerance is lactose intolerance, people with this issue lack digestive enzymes lactase that separates lactose, the sugar in the milk. Consequently, the gut bacteria turn lactose producing gas, abdominal pain, and diarrhea.

Common food allergies

In theory, all food can cause an allergy, at Europe 14 food allergens represent most of the food allergies risk (chart 1), therefore, its inclusion in the nutritional label was legislated. It’s important to know that many kids stop suffering allergies when they get older.

White lupin
Celery
Peanuts
Cereals with gluten
Sulfur dioxide (used as antioxidant and preservative, e.g. dried fruit, wine, processed potatoes)
Dried fruit and nuts
Eggs
Milk
Sea food
Mollusk
Mustard
Fish
Sesame seeds
Soya bean

Threshold values

Among 2-4% of adults and 6% of kids suffer food allergies. The number of allergens that triggers an allergic reaction might vary. The minimum number of allergens in food is named threshold. Since people react differently to the threshold is difficult to identify a max concentration of an allergen in food. Nowadays, one of the main targets of research about this topic is to develop a good gravity reaction indicator in many people.

The European Union (EU) legislation

Currently, there’s no cure for food allergies. The only option people have is to avoid food holding allergens. To ensure a suitable availability of information, the European Commission (EC) has legislated 14 principal food allergens (see chart 1), or any other manufactured ingredient, it shall appear in the label of food bottle (Excluding sulfur dioxide if it’s present in concentrations below of 10mg/kg).

It may contain…

During the production of processed food, to avoid contaminating products with other food allergens, it shall be appropriate separation and hygiene practices. However, a product not made with dried fruit might have a trace of any other product allergens since it was made in the same facilities.In most cases, the probability a label indicates the following, ” it may contain…” is voluntary and offers important information to consumers.

14 allergens shall be declared on labels if they are used as ingredients. The following list includes these allergens and some food examples in which they can be found:

White lupin In addition to flour seeds, these can be found in some types of bread, cakes, pasta, among others.
Celery Including in stalk, seeds, and roots, also, celery salt, salads, some meat products, soups or sauces, and other products.
Peanuts In addition to seeds, pasta (animal fat) oils and flours, can be found at cookies, chocolates, curry’s, desserts, salsa, among others.
Cereals with gluten In addition to wheat (also spelt, kamut) rye, barley and sand. Also, in food made with bread, breadcrumbs, sandwich, couscous, meat products, pasta, bakery, salsas, soup and entangled foods. Cereal shall be declared. To indicate the presence of gluten is voluntary.
Crustacean Including in crabs, lobsters, shrimps, prawns, carabiners, crayfish, among others, also in creams, salsa prepared dishes and other foods.
Nuts Include in almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, cashews, pecans, Brazil nuts, macadamia nuts, and others. Also, in bread, cookies, desserts, ice cream, Mazapan, salsas or nuts oils, among others. In many Asian dishes like curry’s chopped almonds are used.
Sesame seeds Besides the seeds (grains) pasta (tahini the sesame paste), oils, flour, also in bread, breadstick, hummus and other food.
Eggs

In addition, in eggs and derivates (products made from an egg), also in cakes, some meats, mayonnaise, mousse, pasta, quiches, ready meals, sauces, and foods decorated with egg, among others.
Milk Milk and milk byproducts like butter, cheese, milk skin, milk powder, yogurt, and other products, it’s also found in milk, glazed foods, powdered soups, sauces and so on.
Mollusk Also, in the mussel, clams, land snails, oysters, periwinkles, cockles, among others, besides in creams and sauces (e.g. oyster sauce), prepared dishes or as an ingredient in fish stews.
Mustard Besides being in seeds, powder and liquid, also in bread, curry, marinades, meat products, salad dressings, sauces, and soups.
Fish Also, in fishes and fish products, also in fish salsas, pizzas for salads, soup cubes, among others.
Soy Besides seeds (broad bean) salsa, pasta, oils, and flour, also in tofu, miso paste, desserts, ice cream, meat products, sauces, and products for vegetarians.
Sulfites/Sulfur Dioxide Use as preservatives in crustaceans, dried fruits, meat products, soft drinks, vegetables, wine, and beer.

Bibliography

  • Directiva 2007/68/CE de la Comisión de 27 de noviembre 2007 link
  • European Commission Joint Research Centre, the Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements section link
  • European Food Safety Authority, News and Press Room section link
  • Food Standards Agency, Guidance on Allergen Management and Consumer Information, Multimedia section link
  • Protall, Food allergens of plant origin – the relationship between allergenic potential and biological activity, infosheet section link

Nanotechnology in food industry

Harmlessness

The benefits of nanotechnology for the food industry are many and are expected to grow with time. This new, rapidly developing technology impacts every aspect of the food system from cultivation to food production to processing, packaging, transportation, shelf life and bioavailability of nutrients.

The National Nanotechnology Initiative in the U.S. defines nanotechnology as the understanding and control of matter at a nanoscale where unique phenomena enable novel applications. Nanomaterials are further defined as substances between 1 and 100 nm in size showing physical, chemical and biological properties that are not found in bulk samples of the same material. Their extremely small size and high surface area are associated with their greater strength, stability and chemical and biological activities. Therefore, nanotechnology enables development of novel materials with a wide range of potential applications. Nanomaterials are used in a variety of consumer, medical, commercial and industrial products. Because nanotechnology is an emerging, rapidly developing technology, very limited information about it is currently available.

What food technologists and engineers are doing to improve the safety of our food supply, seems limited only by one’s imagination, and nanotechnology opens the door to a whole new array of products (Figure 1). Fresh fruits, vegetables, meat and poultry products are potential vehicles for the transmission of human pathogens leading to foodborne disease outbreaks, which draw public attention to food safety. Therefore, there is a need to develop new antimicrobials to ensure food safety. Because of the antimicrobial properties of nanomaterials, nanotechnology offers great potential for novel antimicrobial agents for the food and food-related industries. The use of nano-antimicrobial agents added directly to foods or through antimicrobial packaging is an effective approach. As a result, the use of nanotechnology by the food and food-related industries is expected to increase, impacting the food system at all stages from food production to processing, packaging, transportation, storage, security, safety and quality.

The benefits of nanotechnology use by the food industry are many and expected to grow. This new, rapidly developing technology impacts every aspect of the food system from production to processing, packaging, transportation, shelf life and bioavailability. Commercial applications of nanomaterials in the food industry will grow because of their unique and novel properties. Human exposure to nanomaterials will continue to increase. Therefore, the health impact of nanomaterials in food is of prime public concern. The ability to quantify the nanomaterial throughout the food life cycle is critical for manufacturing consistency, safety and potential benefits of the consumer product. Public acceptance of food and food-related products containing nanomaterials will depend on their safety. A uniform international regulatory framework for nanotechnology in food is a must.

Article written by Food Safety magazine.

Tracking and measure equipment in ISO 9001:2015

Quality

Why it’s important a tracking and measuring equipment in ISO 9001:2015?

ISO 9001:2015 has the requirements that we shall comply with, by controlling the equipment that we used to carry out or produce changeable products or processes.

Why monitoring and measuring?

Everybody knows what’s a measuring device is but not the monitoring device standard. The concept of monitoring is mentioned because the equipment is used to know the state of something and control the product or process. This equipment tends to fail, and so its compliance shall be evaluated by applying similar techniques of measuring equipment (with metrological techniques).

These are some examples of monitoring and measuring equipment:

  • A thermometer to control and keep the product temperature.
  • A presence detector of an assembly line (tracking example).
  • A Vernier Caliper to measure a piece thickness.
  • A manometer to measure the pressure of production lines.

What type of equipment is influenced by ISO 9001:2015 requirements?

The equipment mentioned above is used for monitoring and measuring. It seems understandable but we shouldn’t ignore; first, we need to determine the type of monitoring and measuring we want and then what type of equipment to use.

We will use the word equipment or device to talk about the same thing. In the standard, the term device is used to differentiate from other elements of infrastructure (6.3.). This equipment comes from monitoring and measuring as we will see later, the scope, complexity or criteria to use when controlling the equipment is independent of the process and product characteristics.

The last paragraph comes from section 7.1.5. and says:

When using tracking or measuring to make evident products conformity and services with specific requirements, the organization shall determine the necessary resources to guarantee a valid and reliable control of results.

The organization shall make sure the provided resources are:

  1. Suitable for the specific monitoring and measuring.
  2. Maintained to guarantee continual compliance to its purpose.

When tracking the measurement of a legal requirement, a client’s requirement or interested party, or when the organization considers essential to trust in the measuring instrument’s results, it shall:

Be verified or calibrated in specific intervals or before they are used against traceable measures to national or international measure patrons.

*When there are patrons, the based for calibration or verification used, the information shall be documented.

What control demands ISO 9001:2015 for this equipment?

The standard indicates, the organization shall guarantee the results validity and reliability, also the equipment shall:

  • Be calibrated or verified in programmed intervals and used international traceable patrons or register the used based to verify or calibrate.
  • To be adjusted or readjusted when necessary.
  • To be identified to determine the calibration state.
  • To be protected against any harm.

The standard demands to maintain the equipment in perfect conditions and handle in the same way other infrastructure elements.

The difference is that to determine the conformity of this equipment, a simple visual inspection is not enough. For example, we don’t know the level of an error on a scale until we contrast results with a patron, for this, we need to use the metrology.

Metrology concept and application in the Quality Management System:

This article is not about metrology but ISO 9001:2015 requirements demand to control monitoring and measuring devices. However, metrology is used to determine the equipment state and we can’t avoid talking about some concepts.

By measuring, we can expect errors and we can improve the measurement system by a piece of better equipment or qualified staff, and a better work environment, but we will never know the real value of the item we measured. The metrology tells us the error level, which we can expect in certain conditions.

For example, when we calibrate a measuring device, a calibration certificate establishes the level of error of the measuring equipment. The task is to match the error level that we are willing to accept (tolerate) with the error level that our system has.

The error level is named uncertainty. The uncertainty establishes a gap in which you can find the true value of the thing measured (object or thing) after applying certain metrologic procedures.

The organization shall verify or calibrate the monitoring or measuring devices by hiring a specialized company. If you choose the first option, the organization could have the personnel and infrastructure to execute Metrologic procedures. Among necessary elements, we have patrons that serve to verify the measuring results. These patrons are not perfect and shall be verified in advance with a higher Metrologic level of patrons. The standards mention that the verification shall be done with international traceable patrons.

If it’s impossible to trace high-level patrons, e.g. Since we have designed our own monitoring and measuring equipment, there aren’t patrons neither procedures to verify the state then we shall create our own verification procedure or calibration as a base used to verify or calibrate.

The organization shall decide the control intensity applied to each equipment and shall establish their own verification procedures, keeping the technical exactitude to guarantee the equipment is able to fulfill their function, since the product conformity is the goal not to keep a new generation laboratory.

This last one serves to calm and lead most of the company’s which products don’t have a demanding tolerance. If your company works with small tolerance (demanding), then consider outsourcing control of this equipment to external company’s and paying attention to used methodologies to carry out measures.

When the product conformity was determined by a narrow margin it’s important that all the aspects intervene while measuring the equipment. People, equipment, and procedures make it easy to validate a measuring control name and a measurement system.

Basic elements of the control system for monitoring and measuring devices:

Stock take

As any infrastructure element, the first step is the inventory; a list shall be made of all equipment that can be used and a card (digital or printed) for each equipment, and designate a code or unique identification in each item, the codes shall be on the component or used like in any other method, by guaranteeing an easy and clear identification.

Equipment card

It describes the important characteristics of each equipment in a card that could be done in any way but associated with the corresponding equipment (s).

Reviewed controls

To determine the verification or calibration control that each equipment shall have, this could be included on the card. It indicates what to do, who shall do it (external or own service), procedures to be used (if the service is your own) and how much control to use.

To determine conformity criteria

We have said that the perfect equipment doesn’t exist. In order to use each equipment shall be determined the limits which separate a piece of nonconformance equipment to a conformance one. To analyze the result of each verification or calibration and base on that, determine if the equipment is suitable or not for the foreseen use.

To identify and register the equipment condition

To ensure product conformity, we need to ensure the measuring equipment (or monitoring) was suitable in the system. This is what ISO 9001:2015 refers to when demands a calibration condition identification. The most extended and basic method to identify the calibration condition is to add a conformity or nonconformance label to verify or calibrate the equipment. This label states the code, date of last control, foreseen date for next control and the word SUITABLE, indicating ready to be used.

Reacting to nonconformance devices detection

This last paragraph contains a requirement that most of the time got unnoticed, especially for auditors who rarely verify compliance. The question is what happens when an organization identifies nonconformance equipment? If the equipment works perfectly, there’s a possibility that some verified equipment was approved when it shouldn’t. The standard, in this case, requires an examination to evaluate the validity of the results on such equipment, register the results, and act upon verified products.

Software for monitoring and measuring

Provided information in monitoring and measuring equipment are not the only one that uses these activities. The statistics treatment of this data, a graphic representation, or estimation of the scales through the software provides essential results to determine product conformity and process. The software used in monitoring and measuring shall be summited to ISO 9001:2015 which verifies the capacity of this program. We confirm this by testing the program by a spreadsheet or software. If your case is the second one, you could request the validation records of the software.

WHAT IS FSMA?

Harmlessness

The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA of the FDA) a law issued by the President of the United States, Barack Obama, on January 04th, 2011. This regulated change had the aim to transform food safety. The industry shall use effective actions to prevent pollution instead of fighting it.

FSMA of the FDA has preventive controls for human and animal food, including specific requirements for food suppliers, foreign importers and identifies qualified individuals in preventive controls. It’s important for affected organizations by FSMA of FDA, as well as suppliers, be certified by the GFSI (as FSSC 22000 or BRC Global Standard) to ensure complying with FSMA requirements.

The principal elements of FSMA are:

Prevention

The FDA has for the first time a legislative mandate to demand wide preventive controls based on science and throughout the food chain.

Inspection and conformity

The FSMA acknowledges preventive control actions, improving the security of food it produces and procedures to comply with them. Therefore, the FDA must provide supervision, assuring conformity with requirements and effectively respond when issues arise.

Reply

FSMA recognizes the FDA shall hold tools to respond adequately to risen issues despite preventive controls.

Importation

FSMA provides unique authorization to the FDA for assuring imported products to attend the standards of the United States and safety for consumers.

Strengthened partnership

FSMA builds a formal system of collaboration with other national and international government institutions. In this way, the regulation explicitly acknowledges that every food safety agency shall work together in a sense to achieve public health aims.

Now, it’s important to keep security for the consumption of food, no matter where they are produced, either conventional or organic, or the size of the company, or if products are manufactured or processed. This is important since the food industry education shall be an important element of the successful implementation of this regulation. Although the food industry members are responsible to have the necessary training in FSMA, the FDA acknowledges the importance of facilitating education. The FSMA training includes several food industry members, either national and international food producers and importers. The FDA operates with partners around the world, including the opposing regulation party and multinational organizations in favor of the global community food suppliers.

The FDA is working with internal public and private partners for assuring programs, complying with FSMA’s new standards no matter the size, nature, or location.

It will take time and effort to work on this and to do it right. The FDA commits to ensuring every person related to the food supply chain knows the training resources, education, and a way to access them.

Food Adulteration

Harmlessness

Food Safety means the absence of health hazards. Food can be risky for consumers when it’s altered, contaminated, and altered.

  • Altered food by intentionally causes altered in its organoleptic features (taste, color, odor, and texture) chemical composition or nutrition’s value (even if it’s safe, it shouldn’t be used).
  • Contaminated food by accident holding microorganisms, chemical, radioactive, or foreign objectives substances; the product could look healthy but could produce harm or illness.
  • Harmful food causes a negative effect, either immediately or by repeated intake. Certain food is harmful to a specific group of people like allergens.
  • Adulterated food was deliberated added a substance. Its composition, weight or volume change to cover any defect. Some examples are present by adding wine, milk fat substitution of vegetables or water, and any other substance. This was made to deceive the consumer, by offering manipulated products in order to obtain economic gain. It’s important to understand that manipulated products can harm consumers health. In the beginning, man preserved food. He learned how to dry, salt and smoke food for an extended time and improved the flavor to hide bad properties in the food. Bit by bit, food was altered, discovering food substitution hiding the organoleptic features on the product.

It was confirmed, chop bovine meat had a mix of other kinds of beef. Many fraud reports were increased due to misleading labeling, for example, fish labels had the fish name changed, making it difficult to know the type of fish; altering Tequila did by mixing cheap alcohol (ethanol) like sugar cane, which increases its volume.

How do you detect altered food or beverage?

Detecting altered food and drinks isn’t an easy task because these products have similar ingredients to authentic products. Therefore, having a quick analytic and precise methods will help to detect adulterer food or beverages and represent an important step by identifying the problem.

Due to the complexity of the altered product, traditional methodology of measurement (for example total sugar, pH, °Bx, electricity conductivity, humidity %, among others) seems not enough moments that allow us to accurately identify the altered products. In view of the above, new methodologies have been developed helping to detect this problem. Nowadays, they are regulating bodies worldwide providing support and guidance to detect several types of food adulteration like the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States, as well as the Federal Consumer Protection Agency (PROFECO), the Federal Commission for Protection against Health Risks (COFEPRIS) in Mexico.

Another tool we can use when detecting these products is to be aware of this kind of article and conduct a thrilling analysis of the product from a specialized laboratory.

Focusing on the client of the management system perspective

Quality

Currently, most of the organizations focus on the customer and quite often resources are investing in creating a Customer Service department, which guarantees the client’s satisfaction, however, a question that we must ask ourselves is: how effective is the customer service department?.

ISO 9001 confers the requirements for creating a quality administration model. There are some guidelines or references to improve customer service, therefore it’s important to understand some concepts:

  • A client. An organization or person acquiring a service or product.
  • The client’s satisfaction. The client’s perspective about the necessary compliance.
  • The Interested party. Individuals or entities which provide value to the organization, engaged in the company’s activities. Clients’ satisfaction and expectations contribute to the ongoing success of the organization.

Once these concepts are reviewed and understood, some of the following guidelines to evaluate our service performance and improve it is:

To identify the interested party. It is important to understand who the interested parties are, needs and expectations, their expectations and needs might change constantly, therefore the organizations shall determine and define a clear way and method to identify them.

To keep an administration under a process approach. In order to properly work for an organization, they shall identify and manage several processes that interact and relate with each other. Quite often, a process output becomes the element of the next process, therefore it’s important to identify the principal process, and supporting process which will be related to impact the customer service.

To continuously evaluate the performance. It’s important to evaluate for achieving the intended objectives; when the expectations and needs of the interested parties are identified, the organization will need to define aims and indicators. The aims shall be precisely defined and evaluated. For example, S.M.A.R.T. objectives, everything that could be measured can be controlled and improved.

Specific What?
Measurable How much?
Achievable How?
Realistic With which?
Time base When?

Keeping communication. Internal and external communication is another important factor to guarantee clients and interested parties are satisfied. Such communication can be through several methods like surveys, contract reviews, client visits, suppliers’ visits, indicators of communications related to product returning, complaints, among others. The organization shall reply to different questions related to clients and interested parties to keep effective communication, for example:

Internal communication What to communicate? When to communicate? How to communicate?
Employees Objectives/indicators, policies, procedures, etc. Weekly  Meetings/emails/courses
Owner/holder Financial status/Profitability indicators Monthly Meetings

External communication

 What to communicate? When to communicate? How to communicate?
Clients Product performance indicators, contract requirements compliance, level of satisfaction, etc. Monthly Meetings/visits/emails
Suppliers Product performance indicators or granted service, deviations, complaints, among others. Monthly Meetings/audits/emails
Government Legal and regulatory compliance evidence Annually Visits/audits/emails
Partnership Impacts related with the company Annually Partnership participation

Maintaining the constantly improvement. The objective of the ongoing improvement is to increase the client’s satisfaction. They are different ways to improve from small details in the workspace to big ones in the organization. These changes shall be defined by data analysis, objectives, improving products, processes, structures, and organization systems.

It’s suggested that the improvement process attends a structured approach like the Deming PHVA methodology, such methodology shall be coherently applicable, focusing on the process, enabling an evaluation, analyzing and providing solutions. The organizations shall constantly strive to comply and surpass client’s expectations; for this reason, the client’s approach was the first of eight principles used by the top management in conducting the organization towards performance improvement.

Get to know Proposal 65 of California’s State

Harmlessness

The 65 proposals of California’s state come into force in 1985 protecting water and food. This action exposes carcinogenic substances that caused birth deformities or any other reproductive disorder. The office overseeing the reviewed and published list of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (ORHHA), requested once a year, to the state of California, an updated list to publish these chemical substances. Check: https://www.oehha.ca.gov/prop65/prop65_list/Newlist.html

Who is affected?

Proposal 65 affects sold or distributed products in California, including textiles, non-perishable products, toys, youthful products, electronics, and electricity. In Mexico, chile inspection was intensified, regarding lead and heavy metals, however, this was done to other products like beans and rice.

The proposal explains, if a product has an exceed element, this shall be specified in the label with the following warning: This product has acknowledged chemicals, by the state of California as carcinogenic and birth deformities or any other reproduction maladies.

For a heavy metals analysis, there is the Mexican official norm NOM-117-SSA1-1994, for goods and services, a testing method for discovering cadmium, arsenic, lead, tin, copper, iron, zinc, and mercury in food, running and purified water by atomic reception spectrometry.

If you trade any type of product in California, please review the list and permitted limits of the norm, to comply with them.

Related regulations

Among other compliance regulations for products, you can find the following:

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