Quality Assurance
Quality Assurance (QA) is the plan on how quality is to be
continually achieved and Quality Control (QC) is the testing or
implementation of the plan.
Flour fortification does not have as stringent requirements as the
manufacture of infant foods or pharmaceuticals. Nevertheless, there are
additional QA/QC measures beyond those required for non fortified flours.
Millers need to comply with basic requirements, because consumers and
government authorities will pay close attention to whether food is adequately
fortified. Fortunately, an effective QA/QC system does not have to be complex
or costly.
There are several comprehensive documents on setting up and running
QA/QC systems for flour fortification.
Click here for a
concise guide on QA/QC, prepared by the Micronutrient Initiative on the basis
of extensive experience and the scientific-technical literature.
The guide defines key terms, and includes an overview of the components
of a QA system, including objectives, premix control, feeder maintenance,
recordkeeping, analytical testing, sampling, and the iron spot test. It
recommends that quantitative testing be done by a reputable external
laboratory, given the cost, training requirements, credibility and availability
of such facilities. The guide also discusses the interpretation of quantitative
test results, given that high analytical error rate of some of the tests. See
the Table for possible situations, their likely causes and corrective action
that could be taken.
Table : Troubleshooting guide
| Situation |
Possible causes |
Possible
actions |
| A single indicator
nutrient or all of the nutrients tested are consistently 80% or less of the
minimum standard or greater than 140% of minimum. |
Wrong
feed rate, |
Increase feed rate |
| Wrong
premix, |
Change premix, |
| High
analytical error |
Check
for bias on test method |
| One nutrient is
consistently high or low but the others are okay. |
Wrong
premix formulation, |
Reformulate premix, |
| High
analytical bias on the problem nutrient. |
Check
accuracy of method |
| High variability (CV) of all
nutrients but their relationship to each other stays relatively constant. |
This
is indicative of high process variability rather than analytical error. |
Check
for causes of process variability such as erratic flour flow rate, high
frequency of chokes and pneumatic separation. |
| Low thiamin but other nutrients
okay. |
Thiaminase in maize meal, High pH (>8) |
Use
different source of maize. |
| Low riboflavin or folic acid but
other nutrients okay. |
Exposure to ultraviolet light. |
Protect flour and samples from light exposure. |
| Low iron but other
nutrients okay |
Low
natural iron levels, |
Reformulate premix, |
| Magnetic separation, |
Use
non magnetic iron, |
| Pneumatic separation |
Add
premix at different point. |
| Low vitamin A but other
nutrients okay. |
Vitamin A separation, |
Reconfigure point of addition, |
| Poor
quality vitamin A. |
Use
premix with better quality vitamin A. |
| Source: Fortification
Handbook |
Commonly used analytical methods for nutrient tests, including the iron
spot test, are provided here.
|