Food Quality and Food Safety

Food quality is basically the degree to which inherent characteristics of food product/services fulfills customer requirements. It is a dynamic aspect of food, which defines its significance or acceptability by consumers. Food safety is a scientific concept discussed under the umbrella of food quality. It deals with the elaboration of food handling, preparation, distribution, and storage in order to avoid potential hazards and, ultimately, to prevent foodborne illness. It's becoming a public health concern of increased significance. Food quality deals with the product’s characteristics while food safety deals with the health of the consumer through the route of safe food. Both of these concepts necessitate the production of safe and nutritious food for the consumer. Various national and international standardization organizations are involved in the development of food standards, addressing food quality and food safety simultaneously. These standards include ISO:2000, FSMS, HACCP, etc. By considering the importance of food quality and food safety, the chapter focuses on various quality systems and food safety management system, their accreditation procedures according to latest practices, and specifications, which require third party audits.