Quality control: From business cost to brand value

Only 5% of EU food safety notifications in 2007 came from checks within a company, whereas 91% originated from regulatory authorities, and 4% from consumers. With some product recalls costing millions of euros these figures suggest that operators in the food chain should pay more attention to internal quality control – and to upstream suppliers. By Dr Elinor McCartney, Pen & Tec Consulting For consumers, safety is the most important food ingredient, according to Androulla Vassiliou,