For many people, the concepts of quality control and quality assurance may seem foreign.
However, these processes are hugely important for many businesses, especially the food production and baking industries.
If you are interested in finding out more about the inner workings of the baking industry, then it is important to know the difference between quality control and quality assurance.
What is quality control?
In the context of a bakery, quality control is the process of ensuring all food items comply with agreed standards.
This method is applied to food items at every process, including raw ingredients and the final baked products.
To assess the quality of a bakery product, you will need to carry out several tests and there are several quality control parameters to take into account.
These include analysing baking ingredients for protein, ash and moisture content, particle size distribution, and the level of contaminants including permissible levels. There are also necessary tests that need to be carried out including testing for Falling number (FN) for alpha-amylase enzyme activity as well as rheological testing to measure the stress and strain of dough and batter.
As well as these quality control specifications, bakeries are required to assess the impact of minor adjustments and changes to ingredients by conducting test bakes. These tests should take into consideration the main elements of baked goods including elasticity, air, crust, taste and appearance.
When these test bakes are conducted, the data collected can better inform bakeries as a result. In fact, it is much easier for them to make decisions about baking production.
To be done correctly, bakeries should consistently monitor production and make any necessary changes throughout the baking process. Some of these changes may include recipe and batch control, enhancing dough quality when mixing, and careful dough handling at the diving stage. Mixing, sheeting, moulding, baking and cooling should all be focused on to achieve consistency as they can all influence the quality of a baked good product.
For example, adjustments that are implemented with regards to mixing times or temperatures can harm the quality of a finished product. Furthermore, if the dough is damaged during the moulding stage, gases could be released before baking, thus damaging the dough's cell structure. During the baking stage, a specific temperature needs to
be maintained and if this isn't achieved, the oven-spring quality of finished bread loaves can be negatively impacted.
Although many people think that nothing can go wrong at the cooling stage, it is equally important to follow specific instructions to ensure quality is controlled. For example, to ensure that bread lasts a reasonable amount of time, bakers ought to decrease the internal temperature at an optimum rate because the loaf will buckle if this occurs too quickly.
Throughout the years, bakeries have relied upon traditional methods of assessing the quality of a baked product, including using their senses. However, using your sight, smell, taste and touch etc is not reliable, especially if you are trying to get accurate results.
Thankfully, nowadays there are more scientific and dependable methods of measuring and controlling the quality of baked goods such as C-Cell that are readily available and accessible.
C-Cell is a baking quality analyser that can analyse samples of baked goods efficiently and effectively. With a high-fidelity colour imager, this device is able to measure even the most specific details of a sample that cannot be achieved by traditional methods.
The capabilities of the C-Cell are bountiful because it is optimised to analyse indicators of quality like cell elongation patterns, tunnelling in cakes, uncooked dough and surface cracking etc.
Given the shape, size and dimensions of baked products are integral to their quality, the C-Cell can also accurately measure factors such as height, width and diameter as well as that of inclusions like chocolate chips, all of which would be impossible without this high-tech application.
More specifically, the baking quality analyser analyses nearly 40 key parameters which are separated into size, shape, cell size and cell elongation.
Within each group, there are subcategories which the C-Cell provides data on.
For size, the C-Cell is able to analyse slice area, slice height, slice width and circumference.
For shape, the subcategories are concavity, oven spring and top/bottom corner profiling.
For cell size, the C-Cell can go into detail regarding the number of cells, the average diameter of cells, the number of holes, cell wall thickness, and the uniformity of fine/course cells.
For cell elongation, the subgroups are average cell elongation, cell alignment and degree of circulation.
As consistency is vital to quality in a baked good, C-Cell prides itself on conducting batch analysis and consistent scoring using these set parameters.
What is quality assurance?
In general, quality assurance is the process of making sure products and services adhere to the standards and expectations of customers and regulators.
Quality assurance is an intricate process that involves planning, implementing, monitoring and enhancing the quality of the products and services.
For the baking industry, quality assurance is incredibly important because it directly impacts the safety, quality and consistency of baked goods.
There are various quality assurance systems that are used. For example, bakeries are required to adhere to a hygienic code to ensure that proper hygiene and sanitation are carried out. It ranges from personal hygiene to pest control and waste management. There are also systems that assess any hazards that may impact the safety and quality of food products, which can be achieved by an in-depth hazard analysis.
C-Cell is also an incredibly useful tool for quality assurance because it is used globally for the objective analysis of baked goods and other foods, becoming a key element of various quality assurances.
By offering bakeries a scientific, unbiased method of testing quality and measuring the impact of changes to the production process, it is vital in helping bakeries meet the quality criteria.
In fact, conducting quality assurance has never been easier as C-Cell only requires an external computer to function and its reasonable size means that it can fit in anywhere, even in the busiest labs.
Why is the difference between quality control and quality assurance?
It can be easy to confuse the terms 'quality control' and 'quality assurance', especially if you are familiar with neither.
Quality control and quality assurance are similar in the sense that they are both implemented to ensure a product is safe and adheres to the proper quality standards.
However, the difference between quality control and quality assurance is that quality control centralises on identifying and responding to defects, whereas quality assurance is more preventative and focuses on being proactive.
Furthermore, quality control pays attention to improving the quality of products, whereas quality assurance puts more emphasis on the quality of the processes that make products.
While both quality control and quality assurance differ slightly, they are both integral to food production.
Why is maintaining quality important?
For any business, maintaining quality is incredibly important because it helps meet customer expectations and maintain high standards.
In the baking industry, there is a pressing need for quality control for a range of baked goods to ensure consistent product quality using control charts for specific parameters.
Not only does maintaining quality help to improve the overall quality of a product by making small adjustments to the baking process and assessing quality improvement in relation to key quality parameters, but it also speeds up product development and formulation changes by measuring objective data instead of assessing subjectively.
Regardless of the role that various types of baked goods play in our lives, making sure that they are of the highest quality should be a priority. For example, with baked goods such as bread, many people rely on this food product on
a regular basis. Therefore, it is crucial for the quality of the bread to remain consistent for a decent amount of time as well as meeting the customers' expectations in terms of value for money and taste.
If the quality of an essential baked good product like bread does not comply with a customer's expectations, it is likely that they will opt to try a different brand.
Quality control is equally important when it comes to less essential baked good products like cakes. These types of items tend to be more expensive than food products such as bread, therefore if a customer finds that it does not match their hopes, they are unlikely to buy it from the same company again. Therefore, even if one batch is not tested for quality control purposes, it could result in the loss of customers and therefore revenue and respect.
As this mistake is more likely to happen when someone relies on traditional human methods of testing, it is recommended to use a baking quality analyser instead. This type of application will rapidly identify the signs of incorrect methodology or insufficient ingredients. For example, pastries that show the use of laminated dough by lack the required layers, and cakes that should be light and fluffy in terms of consistency need lots of cells left behind by activated baking powder.
No matter if the food product is a staple in many people's diet such as bread or is a luxury such as cakes, C-Cell is equipped for the job.
As it measures more than 50 different quality results, it can also be used to analyse the elements of any baked good sample.
It can improve quality control in the baking industry overall as well as properly measuring a whole range of baked goods including bread, tortillas, cakes and biscuits.
This means that companies will be able to achieve consistency across the board in a competitive market while helping to retain the same customers.
Want to make quality control even easier?
Quality control can be a tedious process that can incur a large sum of money if conducted incorrectly.
Therefore, it is important to conduct proper and thorough quality control. At Calibre Control, we are passionate about quality control being a straightforward and simple process that doesn't interfere with food production.
Integrating modern technology such as C-Cell to maintain quality control in the baking industry has never been as straightforward.
C-Cell is a product manufactured by Calibre Control in the UK and is used by businesses globally such as wheat breeders, flour millers, ingredient producers, snack food producers and chocolate producers etc.
For wheat breeders, the C-Cell helps them to test new types and to determine bread making potential at the earliest moment.
For flour millers, it helps them to ensure that their flour is consistently meeting the quality standards overall.
For bakers, it is multifunctional and acts as a quality control tool, exhibiting real time data and permitting them to make minor adjustments to repurpose recipes and process conditions.
For ingredient suppliers, it helps them to stay ahead of the curve by generating large amounts of data to fast-track new developments.
For bakery equipment manufacturers, it aids them in discovering how changes in equipment design can impact the cellular structure of baked products.
Lastly, for academic research groups, it can help broaden their knowledge base by expanding their understanding of cereal science.
As drivers of quality control, we at Calibre Control are dedicated to helping you improve the way baked good products are analysed.
Although the process of carrying out quality control can appear overwhelming, when bakeries have reliable and efficient equipment such as the Baking Quality Analyser, it is less daunting to achieve consistent quality across their food products. To find out more about C-Cell and how it drives quality control in the baking industry, contact our team today. For any product enquiries, you can get in touch either by phone on 01925 860 401 or fill out our contact form.