Consumers in both developing and developed countries demand high quality wholesome food products, at reasonable prices and which are to their full satisfaction. They also need to be protected from food-related illnesses and producers, handlers, processors and traders obviously benefit from increased consumer confidence and related sales. For these reasons all countries need to ensure that the supplies of food are not only acceptable and adequate from the point of view of nutritional and health aspects, and timely and opportune in terms of quantity, availability and affordability, but also of optimum quality and safety. A number of food control strategies have been proposed and carried out to ensure the quality and safety of food from production to consumption. FAO, as a specialized agency of the UN system dealing with the multiple aspects of food quality and safety, has developed activities through the years providing policy advice, generating and disseminating information and executing projects for building national capacity and helping the countries to ensure a safe and wholesome food supply. Recently, an institutional “Strategy for a Safe and Nutritious Food Supply”, addressing key elements of policy advice, capacity building, technical assistance and required actions toward this end has been under development. This strategy is based on the food chain approach to food safety and quality including nutritional aspects.
Recognizing that considerable work on many issues has been undertaken, and that strategies must not be static, and further, that in order to be useful it is essential to evolve from strategy to action, this paper was conceived. Also, taking advantage of the domain of the mandate of the Agricultural Support Systems Division and its Agricultural and Food Engineering Technologies Service, it was recognized that often the engineering aspects are not usually addressed, as part of the multidisciplinary, multifactor context which in real life determines a given degree of quality and safety of specific products within food systems. In other words, it may be the case that the demands and requirements from the markets are known; the norms, regulations and standards are established and maybe even harmonized; the food control system requirements are defined and their implementation is pursued; risk analyses are performed, some quality assurance methodologies and tools are known and training events are carried out. However, in practice, the small agroindustry may not find a feasible way to modify the engineering and technology variables of the manufacturing process without losing money. That is, for the small industry it is not only a matter of willingness to meet markets demands, or to apply quality and safety assurance tools such as Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs), general principles of hygiene, Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP); or to comply with quality standards; or to benefit society with a safe food supply. It is also a matter of how to use their technological assets, old fashioned and simple or modern and advanced ones, in a costeffective way, to make a profit and stay in business.
This work proposes to utilize the systems approach to establish the analytical context for all factors affecting food quality and safety, and hence food industry competitiveness, and identify the engineering variables intrinsic to the food industries and their environment and which, once improved, will make the sector more competitive. Food safety and quality, as well as enterprise productivity, will also necessarily improve once they are seen as systemic products, as will sustainable natural resource use and environmental protection. The approach of this paper is to comprehend that the food industry is a system which is part of, and contributor to, bigger systems, and to focus on the food engineering and technology factors as essential components of quality and food industry competitiveness. The document presents a conceptual methodological proposal whereby any strategy based on the above approach will make it possible to identify and address the priority needs of the small food industries sector in Latin America and the Caribbean, but more important, to respond efficiently and effectively to those needs through sound action. The ideas proposed in this work address, from the food engineering and technology perspective, the complex issues faced by small food industries in today’s markets, where high quality and safe foods are demanded by consumers and all businesses, no matter how big or small must be competitive to succeed and survive.
The preparation of this document was carried out by the author as a Food Industries Officer in the Agricultural and Food Engineering Technologies Service, Agricultural Support Systems Division, within FAO’s Strategic Framework Medium Term Plan 2002-2007, under Programme 214A4 “Agribusiness Development”. This work also was carried out under Programme 214A9 “Enhancing Food Quality and Safety by Strengthening Handling, Processing and Marketing in the Food Chain”, also the responsibility of the same Division, as part of FAO’s Medium Term Plan 2004-2009. The material for this document is derived from a paper presented by the author at the Expert Meeting on Quality and Competitiveness in the Rural Agro-Industry in Latin America and the Caribbean through the Efficient and Sustainable Use of Energy, carried out in Pátzcuaro, México, November 25-28 2002 by the above-mentioned Division of FAO, with the collaboration of the Interdisciplinary Group for Appropriate Rural Technology (GIRA), and the National Autonomous University of México (UNAM).
This document is intended for policy-makers, agricultural economists, marketing specialists, managers, researchers, NGOs, extension professionals, food engineers, agroindustrial engineers, food technologists, nutritionists, and food quality and safety systems specialists, with the hope that they may find useful ideas for their work towards helping countries achieve safe and high quality food supplies.
