Course contents:
Main characteristics of agri-food production chain
- Introduction of Food quality management (FQM)
- Food quality
- Quality management
- Food quality management
Lesson 1: Introduction of Food Quality Management
Date: 31/08/2023
1. Food quality management
Food quality management = Food quality (physical aspects of quality) + Quality
management (Managing people who realise FQ and apply FQ)
Main challenges:
- Complexity: because food is living things, not also contain nutrition value for
human live but also contain living organism
- Food – people interactions: people need food to live and food trend will
change based on the demand of people, how people choose food will affect
the trend of food quality and environment
- High quality requirements: people always require the high quality of food
products and food should be better and better
 Characterisation of the agri-food production chain
The agri-food production chain:
- the chain transforming agricultural products into food products for use,
consumptions and emotional purposes.
- living systems => differ from other product manufacturing chains
- Have restricted shelf-life, harvested seasonally
- Heterogeneous and large variability (10% is common)
- Contain hidden safety risks (chemical contaminants or pathogens)
Other characteristics
- Complicated production chains
- Networks with many suppliers and customers
- Unintentional and unwanted by-products
- High turnover volumes but low-values products
- Substantial environmental impact (packaging material, used product)
- Public interests and concerns (for ex, each country has different interests of
eating habit because their work-life are different to each other, so a suitable food
that fit their schedule and interest will be more purchased. Banana is not a widely
consumed product in Vietnam but not in Korean)
 Importance of food quality
People have had faced too many serious food scandal with major impact on human
and animal health so the food quality is important. Some famous cases can be
mentioned: The Belgian dioxin affair in 1999; food fraud scandals; or baby milk powder
contaminated with melamine in China.
Quality requirements:
- Specific product-related aspects (safety, shelf-life and authenticity – where
the food came from)
- Packaging issues (how convenience it is)
 - Broader societal concerns (social and ethical interest and sustainable Internal factors: those within the control of the business, such as:
constrains) - the products
- Modifications in demographic situations (ageing populations) - pricing
- Shifting social situations (more double incomes) - marketing and advertising
- Changing consumer behaviour and lifestyles (increased outdoor - level of food and service
consumption, changes in food preparation habits). Like the food can encourage people - financial resources of business.
to consume more plant-based food to save the environment External factors: those outside the control of business, such as
- Globalization of markets - climate
- politics
- social trends
- technological advances
- raw materials
- competition from other businesses.

 Complexity of food quality management

Factors affecting the management of food quality
- Consumer characteristics
- Properties of food production system
- Features of agri-food supply chain
- The internal and external food business environment:
~~0~~
NOTE - Cannot infer the response of a combination of factors from the response of

Food quality and food safety issues are due to the combination of multiple causes each factor

embedding in different systems => So we cannot approach FQM issues from one disciplines, whereas the dynamic
and complex characteristics of both food production systems and the people

Ambiguity and Uncertainty inherent to the dynamic and complex character of food involved in this

and human systems involved in producing food quality.

Ambiguity is a situation in which the meaning of something is unclear or open
to multiple interpretations. This could occur, for example, when there are unclear or
conflicting regulations, or when there is a lack of scientific consensus on a particular
food safety issue.
Uncertainty is a situation in which there is incomplete or imperfect
information. This could occur, for example, when there is limited data on the
prevalence of a foodborne pathogen, or when the effectiveness of a particular food
safety control measure is not fully known.
The outcome of food quality management is not fully predictable, so food business
- do not achieve the intended results
- must reach predictive and guaranteed quality levels
- reduce a simpler system
- consider food quality a rather controllable processes

Complex system: systems that are part of continuously changing, self-organising,

interdependent and adaptive systems
- Multiple factors determine their behaviour and they are in a continuous state
of flux