Farm quality control app delivers complete farm quality management for fruit and vegetable farming. Enforce farm quality control of fresh produce in field, spray tasks, harvesting teams and more...
Farmsoft guides employees through farm quality control tests. Enforce farm quality control using a smartphone or tablet – anywhere, anytime.
Farmsoft delivers extensive and flexible quality control checking systems that meet international farm quality control standards. Configure tests based on ISO, BRC, farmsoft, Cropsure, or create your own farm quality control tests. Farmsoft’s extremely flexible farm quality control solution allows the configuration of virtually any farm quality control test, such as “spray checklist”, “employee performance checklists”, “safety equipment checklist”, “pre-harvest crew checklist” and more. Integrate your farms quality management system (QMS) into farm quality control processes and record them from your phone, tablet, PC or Mac. You can even integrate your farm quality control with farmsoft’s fresh produce quality control for fruit processing and packing.
Quality control in agricultural value chains and external certification
Imagine a world in which every box of Cheerios you opened tasted different. In developed countries, quality control measures to ensure that food products meet certain safety and quality standards play a key role in agricultural processing. These measures include testing for bacterial contamination, measuring the amount of fat, protein, and other nutrients, and inspecting plants, livestock, and production facilities.
However, food quality control in agricultural value chains in developing countries, where agricultural production tends to be dominated by smallholder farmers, presents particular challenges. Although formal contracting between farmers and agricultural processors is becoming a norm in some developing countries, many smallholders continue to market their products through informal channels. In such cases, a processor who buys products from a smallholder may be the first actor in the value chain to engage in effective quality control. How can agricultural processors better convince their customers that appropriate steps to ensure high quality products are being taken? Should the food processor use its own staff and facilities to conduct testing and assessments of quality and compliance with safety norms? Or should it rely on a third party to monitor and certify product quality?
Quality control can be divided into two key steps: acquiring information about product quality and acting on this information by preventing defective products from reaching consumers. Because food products have many experience and credence characteristics (experience characteristics being those about which consumers learn from their own consumption experience and credence characteristics being those which consumers can only learn from third parties), consumers may have potentially two (related) concerns when purchasing food. The first is whether the agricultural firm invests in monitoring to determine if its food product meets quality standards. The second is whether the firm appropriately reacts to this information.
In a working paper titled “The Value of Delegated Quality Control”, I develop an analytical model to analyze how firms choose the optimal mode of quality control: whether to control quality internally or to rely on external certification. Even if the monitoring technology is the same in both monitoring regimes, incentives to engage in appropriate quality control are not the same for internal and external monitors. Under internal quality control, the firm incurs two types of costs: (i) the direct cost when it invests in learning about quality through testing, audits, and inspection; and (ii) the opportunity cost when it keeps defective products from being released into the market. On the other hand, a third party monitor incurs only the direct cost; however, this external monitor – be it a private entity or a government agency - must also earn a premium to be willing to engage in appropriate quality control. Taking into account the cost of providing incentives to an external monitor, the model predicts that it is more profitable and efficient for large firms to engage in internal quality control, while small firms are better off using external quality control and certification. The model also shows that the modes of communication between the external certifier and the firm and between the external certifier and consumers, as well as potential economies of scale in external certification, are important determinants of the optimal mode of quality control.
In future research, I intend to estimate the model’s parameters that influence the optimal mode of quality control, such as the cost of assessing quality, the profit margin for high quality products, the frequency of trades, the accuracy with which consumers evaluate quality, and the potential size of the market for external certification. Preliminary results from a survey of participants in dairy value chains in Kyrgyzstan suggest that the surveyed milk plants and milk collectors relied on internal quality control with some important exceptions, such as livestock inspections and inspections of production facilities for compliance with sanitary norms. However, an undeveloped market for external certifiers and weak contract enforcement probably significantly limited the organizational choices of the agricultural firms that participated in the survey.
Adhere to international farm quality control standards such as BRC, HACCP, GlobalGAP, ISOx, and other standards
Perform farm quality control from smartphone or tablet (iPad, iPhone, Android)
Employees can capture photos and comments during the performance of a test
Specify corrective action and test failure instructions
Configure quality control tests for fresh produce, spray tasks, irrigation, chipping and any other farm task
Chose from a set of flexible testing tools, including pass/fail tests, value range tests, percentage based tests, with unlimited test criteria
Attach photographs, documents, and instructions to tests
Create quality control categories, and specify the number of category criteria tests to fail the entire test, percentage of count/weight to fail a test, individual criteria to fail a test and more…
Food & Agriculture Quality Control
Food safety accidents are a real possibility these days, meaning increased scrutiny and rigorous testing on production and other areas. From farmlands to dining tables, each stage of the entire food supply chain challenged by product safety, quality, and effectiveness. Food and agriculture quality standards are of the utmost importance and central focus for industry authorities and consumers.
This paper describes a quality-control supply-chain model using the “Internet +” paradigm. The model is based on principal-agent theory, which considers the reputational loss due to inferior products and external responsibility identification. After model analysis and simulation verification, the results show that the optimal quality-control level and market price of agricultural products can be achieved in the agricultural supply chain based on “Internet +” if and only if the information platform’s claim to the agricultural producer is less than the agricultural producer’s claim to the delivery service provider. Also, a rise in consumers’ claims or the agricultural producer’s reputational loss due to inferior products will motivate the quality control of an agricultural procedure. Meanwhile, the market price of agricultural products will also increase with enhanced quality control procedures. The quality-control level of a delivery service provider is inversely proportional to the information platform or its own reputational loss. Thus, the key to promoting quality control along the supply chain is to strengthen the responsibility confirmation of an inferior product between the agricultural producer and the delivery service provider.
Whether you are a grower, food packer, or hold any other important role in the food supply chain, it’s your duty to demonstrate integrity and promote safety from the source. But these assurances can only be given where the growing, processing, procurement, and shipping are regularly monitored and tested by specialized staff.
We serve the next industries:
Seafood Quality Control
Processed Food Quality Control
"Quality Control for Foods and Agricultural Products" is a single, complete, and practical reference to the wide variety of techniques for quality control in the production of food products. The book may also serve as a guidebook to other industries that are initiating or reviewing their quality control procedures.
This title provides an overview of the tools available for quality control in the food industry. Among the quality control measures discused are practical methodology, sampling methods, measurement devices, sensors, computer analysis, data interpretation, reference materials, and standardization. "Quality Control for Foods and Agricultural Products" allows the reader to compare and contrast the advantages and disadvantages associated with a particular quality control method. Armed with this knowledge, the best possible quality control method may be chosen for a given product.
Pesticide and Fumigation Quality Control
Meat and Poultry Quality Control
Grain Quality Control Inspections
Fruits & Vegetables Quality Control
Food Quality Assurance Services
Some of the food services we provide include:
Agriculture: grains, vegetables and fruits
Seafood: frozen seafood, refrigerated seafood, and dried seafood.
Artifactitious Food: processed grains, dairy products, meat products, seafood products, instant foods, frozen drinks, frozen foods, potato crisps and extrusion snacks, candy, vegetables, fruits, baked foods, edible oil, flavorings, etc.
We comply with national laws and regulations and carry out quality services based on the following standards:
Food sampling inspection standards: CAC/GL 50-2004, ISO 8423:1991, GB/T 30642, etc.
Food sensory evaluation standards: CODEX, ISO, GB, and other classification standards.
Food testing and analysis standards: domestic and international standards, a range of standards related to microbiology detection, pesticide residues detection, physico-chemical analysis, etc.
Salinity detection
Under a cooperative agreement, USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) and the Wallace Center at Winrock International developed Quality Management Systems: A Guide for Food and Farm Businesses. The goal of this project was to create a resource to help food and farm businesses, including food hubs, and USDA GroupGAP and other food safety certification administrators understand the benefits of a quality management system (QMS) and how to implement a QMS.
The fresh fruit & vegetable industry is a fascinating place to be. Don’t think of it as watching asparagus growing in a field. Think of a vast industry that operates with just-in-time delivery of perishable products, many with limited shelf life and very specific storage temperatures. As someone said to me many years ago when he had a load of California table grapes stuck at the border, “This isn’t hardware, you know!”
Take a look around a produce department. Look at where all of those products came from. Carrots from Bradford. Tomatoes from Leamington. Kiwi from Italy. Grapes from South Africa. Asparagus from Peru. The list goes on and on. So how can it all look so good at your local store when it has travelled for hours, days or weeks? Quality control (QC) at multiple points in the journey.
The QC people ensure that whatever arrives at their back door is what was ordered by the buyers. It has to be fresh, crisp and bright. If it is dull, wilted, discoloured or decayed, it isn’t going to make it to the retail displays. Decisions have to be taken quickly. Is it to be rejected or regraded? Was it in suitable shipping condition before it left its point of origin, or was it damaged in transit? Is it the correct variety, size, colour, firmness or sweetness?
Fresh produce has to be cut, dug or picked. It has to be cooled as quickly as possible. It has to be graded to some sort of grade standards or retail specifications. It has to be properly packed and palletized in a manner that ensures that it is delivered in saleable condition. A receiver has to check temperatures on arrival. A QC person has to make sure that the product actually meets certain quality and condition criteria on arrival. All of this has to be done with international good agricultural practices in mind, and food safety at the forefront of every turn that the produce takes.
Where could you fit into this massive industry? Think of what you know, or what you want to learn. You don’t need to know how to drive a tractor if you live in the city. You don’t need to know how to grade citrus fruit if you live in Northern Ontario, either. Canada relies on over 60,000 temporary foreign workers every year to plant, care for, harvest and pack fresh fruits and vegetable across Canada. It is hard work, long hours, and the weather does not always cooperate. It can be very rewarding to harvest what you tended to during the growing season.
Ice glazing check
Chromatic aberration inspection
Some of our food and agriculture safety testing services items include:
Pollution detection
Residues detection
Microorganism detection
Physico-chemical analysis
Heavy metal detection
Dye detection
Water quality measurement
Food nutrition label analysis
Food contact materials testing
Defining quality assurance
Quality assurance (QA) schemes for fresh produce are designed to enable producers to demonstrate that their on-farm practices allow them to produce safe food products that meet Australian food safety standards under the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code (the Code).
The Northern Ireland Beef & Lamb Farm Quality Assurance Scheme was developed to give consumers assurances about the farm end of the production chain of their food. It is about farm quality – the quality of the production methods used, the quality of care for animals which is practiced, the quality of the farm environment, and above all the quality of concern for the customer in producing beef and lamb which is wholesome, safe and free from unnatural substances.
Non-compliance with food safety laws can lead to fines, loss of business opportunity or even closure.
Fresh produce can include meat, fruit, vegetables, herbs and nuts supplied for sale in the wholesale, retail and food service sectors, or used for further processing. For more information about quality assurance schemes for meat see the Meat and Livestock Australia website.
Since 2000, the number of QA schemes has increased significantly. The main aim for QA schemes is to encourage producers to think about their on-farm practices and how they impact the safety of the fresh food they produce and sell.
The hazards
On the farm there are a number of food safety hazards associated with producing fresh produce.
Hazards can arise during the growing, harvesting, packing, storage or distribution stages of production and are categorised as microbiological, chemical or physical.
Microbiological food safety hazards
Microbiological food safety pathogens include some bacteria, viruses, parasites, algae and fungi. Contamination can arise from a poor understanding of:
the use of untreated organic animal manure used as fertiliser or soil ameliorant during production
pathogen contamination of picked produce prior to packing
waste management
water as a pathogen carrier
good hygiene practices after eating, smoking and ablutions
cleaning and sanitation
pest management to control pathogen numbers in picking, harvesting and packing facilities.
Chemical food safety hazards
The chemicals we use in our production systems can become food safety hazards if not used as intended by the manufacturer and the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA).
QA systems incorporating the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points' (HACCP) 12 step method are required by law as a food safety tool.
This system allows you to identify where food hazards may occur in your system, their risk to a finished product and how they could be managed to prevent or minimise the risk of contamination.
Today, over 100 standards have been adopted for the purpose of facilitating international trade (see list of agricultural quality standards). UNECE's international commercial quality standards cover a wide range of perishable products, including fresh fruit and vegetables, dry and dried produce, seed potatoes, eggs and egg products, meat and cut flowers.
Contact a farmsoft consultant today to for a free discussion of farm quality control options now.
Easy farm quality control, from your phone or tablet, anywhere, anytime.
Reference: fresh produce marketing sales export documentation fresh produce dispatch management.
Farm Quality Control
Farm quality control app delivers complete farm quality management for fruit and vegetable farming. Enforce farm quality control of fresh produce in field, spray tasks, harvesting teams and more...
Farm quality control app delivers complete farm quality management for fruit and vegetable farming. Enforce farm quality control of fresh produce in field, spray tasks, harvesting teams and more...