When it comes to the use of quality tools, I have heard a general comment that they are more applicable to the chemical industry than to foods and beverages. I have been told that this idea comes from the beliefs “we are dealing with Mother Nature” and “we don’t have the resources,” among others. However, with the Food Safety Modernization Act, under corrective action procedures, food safety teams are required to provide written procedures that must describe the steps taken to identify and correct the problem, reduce the likelihood of occurrence, evaluate affected food for safety, and prevent affected food from entering commerce.1 Proper root-cause analysis tools may be useful to determine how to prevent recurrence and, most importantly, help identify the problem.
In general, it is true that there are difficulties when dealing with food, like having a hot summer and getting produce that is not up to specifications or trying to interpret certain microbiological results. I know that flow diagrams and control charts are commonly used. Here, I am sharing some quality assurance tools that can be used in the food industry,2 including some background and examples for better understanding and implementation. I have left out more complex tools such as x-R charts, statistical process control charts, and sampling, which can also be used but need separate data collection.