Quality and Safety Aspects of Food Products Addressing the Needs of Pregnant Women and Infants

Food safety is a primary concern for pregnant women and infants as the immune system is weakened during pregnancy and not developed enough in infants, which makes them especially vulnerable to suffering from the negative effects of nonquality food products. However, food contaminations not only affect an individual's health but also a country's economic development, social harmony, food trade and even politics, as seen during the Chinese infant formula crisis in 2008. Thus, quality control is crucial in the production processes in order to have safe food products on the market. But quality control alone is not enough: manufacturers must embrace quality beyond classic in-process parameters and perform a final microbiological analysis at the end of the production process. This requires a clear and trustworthy approach to quality and safety and the involvement of all stakeholders from industry, government and academia over policy makers to consumers. This paper provides an introductory context for current quality management systems and gives real-life examples of challenges that manufacturers face during quality management and control throughout the production process. (C) 2014 S. Karger AG, Basel.