ABSTRACT
A renewed interest in quality control began vigorously in the 1960s, particularly in the automotive and electronic industries. However, the adoption of, commitment to, and formalization of the concepts have grown dramatically in the last decade and in particular since the last conference on food protection. Food regulatory agencies such as the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) have been even slower in developing quality control concepts, partly because they believed their numerous regulations to be adequate quality control mechanisms. US Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspectors have done much of the quality control work of smaller processors and perhaps caused these firms to become dependent instead of progressive. Quality control and/or quality assurance programs now utilized by the FSIS cover most facets of USDA responsibilities, including laboratory operations, inspection of meat and poultry slaughter, inspection of meat and poultry cooking and fabrication.
