ABSTRACT
It is true to say that, in the food industry, most hygiene failures arise from failures in the management of sanitation programs. Hence, it is important that management procedures are carefully planned and implemented. This chapter deals with this topic. The traditional way to determine and improve microbiological quality has been to apply microbiological specifications to ingredients and end-products. One of the major problems encountered during the management of sanitation programs is complacency. Total quality management, as a concept, is essentially a set of management techniques which can be used to continuously achieve improvement within the company. ISO 9000 sets out the requirements of company management which are designed to ensure the quality of products and to provide guidance on topics that must be considered for this purpose. Hence, companies define their own standards but they must demonstrate to an external assessor that they conform to them.
