Indicators of product quality and food safety.

Abstract

There are various ways to assess quality and to grade the quality of a product. To assess quality in general there is no need of complicated methods. This is because it is either good for the purpose it is intended for, or not. For example the most common method that every person uses to indicate if the food (in this case) is good to eat or not we use our sense of smell and taste. According to their analysis we will eat or reject the food. This is a very simplistic idea of indication but it is the most commonly in use in our daily life. Naturally we cannot rely on this method to indicate to us if a sample of food has bacteria or a dangerous chemical in it. Therefore, nowadays, we use much more accurate analysis of food. To be successful these analysis must be tailored for the search of a specific target. In these cases they are called indicators. Indicators may be chemical, bacteriological or visual. All of the three indicators are used and accurate, as long as, they are used in their proper context, for they tend to be very specific and it is of the out most importance that whoever conducts the tests, has a very good background of what type of indicators there are available. This is because certain indicators are not used to assess if the product is good to eat or not, but to grade the quality of the product in respect of another competitor's product. In this dissertation there are various examples of chemical, bacteriological and visual indicators and there are as well some practical food safety tips which can help the reader to be more conscious about the hazards that can be hidden in an innocent looking small little food can.