Food safety... It’s crucial, even fundamental to the success of any food company - whether it is at the production, processing or retailing end of the business.
Yet the incidence of food-borne illness continues to rise. It’s bad for business but there are also added incentives to tighten up on food safety. Our food legislation is being strengthened as part of the change from prescriptive food safety regulations to an enabling risk management focus that puts the responsibility directly onto the producer or processor.

Help is at hand. The New Zealand Institute of Food Science and Technology (NZIFST) has compiled a food industry guide to good manufacturing practice and produced a food safety training video. A NZIFST Quality Assurance Division team worked on this project in association with AgriQuality (formerly MAF Quality Management).

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About the Book

The Food Industry Guide to Good Manufacturing Practice builds on an earlier version published in 1992. Designed to be user friendly, the guide is crammed with training tips, step by step decision trees and useful hints.

Priced at NZ$67.50 (including GST), the Food Industry Guide to Good Manufacturing Practice is certainly affordable for any sized food business.The food industry manufactures food which consumers eat for their nutritional needs and for enjoyment. Every can of beans, every fish fillet, every loaf, every apple is eaten. The aim of good manufacturing practice in the food industry is to provide food that meets the consumers' needs and wants, and also gives them the security of safety and reliability.

Good manufacturing practice is based on the knowledge and skills throughout the food system, from primary production of the raw materials, through processing of the industrial ingredients, manufacturing of the consumer products, distribution of the final retail products to the cooking and eating of the final foods.

You may only work in the manufacturing sector, but you need to know what is happening in the total food system. Are your raw materials safe? Are the industrial ingredients the correct quality? Are the consumer products deteriorating in distribution? Are the instructions correct for the consumers' use of the product?

Food materials and products are biological; this means that the raw materials vary in quality and change throughout the processing and manufacturing, and that the products keep changing during distribution and in the home. There are many reactions occurring during processing and manufacturing that cause changes in composition, nutritional value, physical structure, sensory properties, and in the micro-organisms.

The objectives of good manufacturing practice are to control the changes in the food materials so as to develop the desired qualities in the product, to ensure the food is safe to eat, and to stop or slow down any deterioration in the food. Good manufacturing practice means understanding, analysing and controlling the manufacturing process.

This is done by firstly collecting together knowledge of the process, which may be recorded in textbooks and manuals or which may be the tacit knowledge built up in people's heads through experience. You will see that there is a section on food preservation in the book as introduction to this area of food processing, but you will need to increase your knowledge further by continuous study . Then you can analyse the process: divide it into sections (unit operations), study each section in detail, determine what the reactions are and how the processing conditions are affecting them. Remember that it is the whole process that you are studying from the primary raw material to the food ready to be eaten by the consumer.

The processing conditions are very often temperature, time and sometimes humidity, pH, oxygen. You need to learn for example how temperature and time (heat treatment) destroy micro-organisms, cause browning of the food, change the structure of proteins, destroy vitamins. Then for each unit operation you can set the conditions for the desired food quality and for safety, and control them to give the correct processing. This logical method is called Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) which was originally developed to ensure food safety but is now also used to control food quality.

A Quality Management System can then be set up by taking the processing knowledge and building it into a quality organisation. This essentially records the various parts of manufacturing practice in a form that can be used for the day-to-day organisation of the manufacturing; setting out the quality policy, the methodologies, the responsibilities and training of staff, critical documents and records, corrective actions.

This Guide to Good Manufacturing Practice is a vital introduction to anyone coming into the food industry; but it is still important to those with experience in the industry to remind them of what they should be doing, and to identify poor and risky practices which may have crept into their practice. But remember it is only a check list and you must always keep increasing your knowledge of food processing and how to control it to give the optimum product quality and to remove the risk of unsafe food. Food manufacturing is a fascinating area of work because it is always changing, but this change must be controlled through use of HACCP and a vibrant Quality Management System.

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Endorsements:

"This guide is a very useful reference particularly for smaller to medium sized companies that may not have implemented ISO 9002."
Brenda Cutress, Executive Director, Food & Grocery Council (FGC)..

"The expanded NZIFST Good Manufacturing Practice manual is a crucial resource for all Technical and Quality Managers in the food industry."
Karen Davies, National Manager - Food & Beverage, New Zealand Engineering Food & Manufacturing Industry Training Organisation Inc.

"The need for food safety plans and an ever-increasing interest in HACCP in our industry has coincided with HSI developing 3 new food handling unit standards. This book aligns nicely with the units and would be a valuable resource to those teaching, learning and assessing."
Ian Harding, National Quality Assurance Manager, Hospitality Standards Institute

"The New Zealand Food and Beverage Exporters Council is pleased to endorse the development and implementation of Good Manufacturing Practice within New Zealand. Internal disciplines to satisfy consumer demands for Food Safety are an essential process in any modern food and beverage company for both the domestic and export markets".
Robert G. Lind, Chairman, New Zealand Food and Beverage Exporters Council

"As a user guide to setting up a Quality System, GMP system, HACCP etc, this book would be an invaluable reference which could be used by both the Australian and New Zealand food industries as a primary reference document in this very important area."
Jeff Zimbler, Quality Systems Manager, Goodman Fielder Australia.

"This book is an excellent base document for people involved in all aspects of the Food business. It is ‘user friendly’ and pulls together all of the necessary components that are required to manage a successful operation."
Ann Nuku, Quality Systems Coordinator, AFFCO Foods Group, AFFCO (NZ) Ltd.

"The section in the NZIFST GMP Book on HACCP Based Food Safety Programmes is a valuable resource for food producers, providing them with a very good starting point for developing their own Food Safety Programme".
Margaret Brookes, Food Safety Programme Auditor, Amdel (NZ)


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How To Order:

To order your copy of Food Industry Guide to Good Manufacturing Practice please download the order form and fax or mail it back to NZIFST:
Good Manufacturing Resources Order Form

Fax: +64 6 356 1687
Post: NZIFST, PO Box 8031, Palmerston North, NEW ZEALAND.
Email: Executive Manager NZIFST

Prices:

New Zealand: $67.50 including GST.
Australia: $60AUD.
International: $50USD.

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