Handbook

This course presents a package of information and exercises designed to demonstrate the public health risk associated with the production and consumption of foods and the strategies adopted by industry, government and consumers to manage and control these risks. It introduces students to both the regulatory and technical aspects of quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) from the organisation-wide level, through the production environment to the analytical quality assurance/control laboratory. It provides theoretical concepts and practical experience in the design of quality systems, and exposes students to QA and QC approaches taken in food-producing organisations. Topics covered include:

• concepts and specific safety issues
• physical, chemical and biological risk
• absorption, distribution, storage and biotransformation of toxicants
• legislative framework for managing food safety by government, management of food safety and quality by industry
• food quality systems including TQM, HACCP and ISO quality standards
• national and international regulation and issues, legal and insurance issues
• consumer concerns - education, social, moral and ethical issues