Fish Microbiology and Quality Assurance

Unit 9 - Assurance and management quality of fish

9.3. Quality Standards
Food quality standards refer to reasonably complete and widely applied set of specifications for ensuring product quality that have been agreed nationally or internationally. Food standards have been introduced by several countries to protect the health of the consumers and also to ensure fair practices in trade. Thus, it is a technical specification or a document available to the public which is prepared with the cooperation and consensus or general approval of all concerned affected by it. Establishing a quality standard is based on the consolidated results of science, technology and experience with a aim to promote optimum community benefits and approval by a body recognized on the national or international level. Thus, a document of food standards is regulatory in nature and induces technical specifications and code of practices applicable to the concerned food. The terminologies that are commonly used in food standards include regulation, technical;l specification and code of practice.

Regulation
Regulation is a binding document, which contains legislative, regulatory or administrative rules that is adopted and published by an authority legally vested with the necessary powers.

Technical specification
Technical specification is a document, which lays down the characteristics of a product or a service such as levels of quality, performance, safety and dimension. It may include terminology, symbols, testing and test methods, packaging and labeling requirements.

Code of practice
Code of practice is a processing specification that applies generally to processes of a given type. Codes are guidelines drawn for a whole industry by regional, national or international agencies and are voluntary or advisory in nature with codes relating to health protection having the force of law.