Many years ago, I posited this question in the opening paragraph of an article for Food Testing and Analysis Magazine,1 the forerunner of Food Safety Magazine: In a corporation whose principle source of income derives from the manufacture and marketing of human food, why is there a need to sell food safety assurance? That was in 1999, and what I reported then in my answer to that question still applies for many companies today.
Food safety assurance is an emerging science, and it is not understood as well as is quality assurance. Let us be clear on one point, however—quality assurance is negotiable, subject to the whims of the consumer or of a company's brand manager. Color changes, added flavors, cost-reduced ingredients, or new packaging formats can be (and are) implemented on a regular basis in the industry. Changes to these cosmetic attributes are the stuff that often defines quality. Put succinctly, quality is an arbitrary and subjective proposition that is frequently guided by market pressures such as price and competition. Many esteemed quality experts have also opined that "quality is free."2