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Quality Assurance & Product Integrity

The foundation of a successful brand is consistent quality. Here you will learn more about the basics of a comprehensive quality program and how Anritsu can help you build your own

Defining Quality

Defining Quality

Safety vs. Defects

A safety issue is anything that represents a health hazard to consumers, such as contamination with foreign objects, foodborne pathogens, or chemical compounds. Quality issues are defects such as cracks on the product surface, incorrect weight, or inconsistent shape. Although defects pose no health risk, they fall short of consumers’ expectations and detract from brand value.

Quality Assurance vs. Quality Control

Quality programs have two components: Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Control (QC). Quality Assurance aims to prevent defects by following strict production standards, while Quality Control aims to discover defects in products before they reach consumers.

Minimize Defects & Risks

A strong quality program is the result of a continuous improvement mindset, where the defects found during Quality Control are used to validate the efficacy of Quality Assurance practices and to correct them when needed.

Advance your QC with Anritsu

With Anritsu’s X-ray systems and Checkweighers you can discover different types of defects that hide in packaged products.

Filling Volume

Filling Volume

Wrong filling quantities or uneven filling distribution in individual products.

Missing/Counting

Missing/Counting

Incorrect quantity or count of single components in composite products.

Broken/Malformed

Broken/Malformed

Broken products/seals, products with cracks on the surface or missing components.

Weight

Weight

Weight discrepancies in packaged products.

Product Integrity Application Examples

Filling Volume

Filling Volume

Detect chocolate or cream donuts with over/under/missing filling; detect microwaveable turnovers with uneven distribution of meat filling.

Missing/Counting

Missing/Counting

Inspect the number of pieces of vertically-packed biscuits or cookies; detect overs/shorts of individual components in multi-component products for example a missing cookie in a tray; detect missing items in packages where the amount is displayed as number of pieces and each one has variable mass.

Broken/Malformed

Broken/Malformed

Detect cracks, chips or irregularities on fruit cakes or missing/broken sticks in popsicles; inspect voids and air bubbles trapped in retort food, cheese, or butter for maintaining freshness.

Weight

Weight

Product giveaway or insufficient weight; insufficient weight of tubes in pharmaceutical products or cosmetics; exact dosage of pharmaceutical, nutraceutical and cannabis products.

Product Safety

Our Metal Detectors, Checkweigher, and X-ray systems will find more contaminants and advance your quality assurance program, reducing production downtime, customer complaints and risk of product recalls.

Regulations & Standards

Regulations & Standards

Producing safe and high-quality products is a complex process of navigating regulations, good practices, and high standards. Here are the main ones for the food industry.

USDA/FSIS

The Food Safety and Inspection Service enforces food safety regulations for meat, poultry, and processed egg products.

FDA

The Food and Drug Administration covers all foods that are not under FSIS jurisdiction, for example milk and dairy products, seafood, fruits and vegetables, and processed foods.

GMP

Good Manufacturing Practices set the minimum requirements for producing safe processed food, reducing the risk of foodborne illnesses and consumers’ complaints.

SQF

A global food safety and quality certification and management system based on HACCP principles, developed and managed by the Safe Quality Food Institute.

The Three Pillars of Risk Mitigation

Sources

Sources

Choosing to work with suppliers that can guarantee high quality and safety standards is an important first step.

Processes

Processes

Implementing Good Manufacturing Practices to keep the processing environment free of contaminations.

HACCP & Critical Control Points

HACCP & Critical Control Points

Assessing food safety risk, monitor your preventive measures, and correct them when needed.

Data & Metrics

  • Quality vs Quantity

    Quality vs Quantity

    Quality issues are below-standard visual defects, such as cracks, incorrect shape or uneven filling distribution. Quantity issues are related to incorrect count, weight, or filling level.

  • Metrics

    Metrics

    Useful metrics to assess your quality and safety programs are: pass/fail data, number of rejects, common defects, common foreign contaminants, number of inspected items, machine calibration, total batch weight.

  • Customer Satisfaction

    Customer Satisfaction

    What do your customers expect about the quality of your products? Meeting and exceeding those expectations will be key elements in reaching customer satisfaction long-term.

  • Standards & Certifications

    Standards & Certifications

    Maintaining high quality and safety over time will require clear written standards and internationally recognized certifications, such as ISO 9001 and SQF.

Anritsu Academy

Find and download on-demand resources to learn more about product inspection and detection. Expand your knowledge with sell sheets, presentations, videos, and more. Just a few clicks away.

More Resources

Why Invest in Quality?

Why Invest in Quality?

Reduce Consumer Complaints

Complaints have a ripple effect. Unhappy customers are more likely to talk about their experience with others, whether in person or on social media.

Improve Brand Reputation

Good quality protects your reputation. If your brand name becomes associated with poor quality, it might take a lot of time to change consumers’ perception.

Reduce Costs

Non-quality also has a direct financial impact. Every defective product you cannot sell will have to be produced again, effectively doubling manufacturing costs.

FAQ

Modern X-ray systems can better detect less dense contaminants, such as bone and glass. X-ray systems can also detect metals ranging in size between 0.5mm to 0.8 millimeters.

Quality Assurance starts with the creation of a QA plan aiming for the goal of preventing defects. This is achieved by following strict production standards.

Quality Control discovers defects in products before they reach consumers by utilizing product inspection systems.

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Contact Us

Interested in learning more about our inspection solutions or other products? Get in touch with us today!