Food is essential for keeping us strong, healthy and alert so safety is vital and is ensured through food sampling.
Food hygiene isn’t just something restaurants and warehouses need to worry about; it’s also important to know how to prepare food safely in the home. Everyone is responsible for food safety.
But the food industry handles food items and related sensitive products professionally on a daily basis and maintaining quality standards is imperative.
Quality control for food is crucial for all food products which includes what’s grown, packed, distributed and eventually eaten which is where food sampling comes in.
Why Food Sampling is Important in the Food Industry
Food sampling is extremely important in the food industry. Quality control is a process that helps to target, identify and rectify defects in finished food products.
This can be achieved by eliminating the sources of quality problems to ensure safety and customer requirements are continually met. When looking for trace elements within food items, sampling is a critical step as it’s used to check that food is safe to consume and doesn’t contain harmful elements.
A food sample test is carried out by putting the product through a physical analysis and this could be undertaken by a manufacturer or by the official food law enforcement team not only for control purposes but also for research and public information.
How to Take a Food Sample
To ensure that food is fully safe to eat, a food sample needs to be taken and process needs to be carried out including identifying the reason behind the sampling whether it be a customer complaint or part of an investigation.
You must also ensure the food sample equipment is sterile and is not contaminated. Naturalluy, washing your hands before taking a food sample is essential. You must also make sure the sample size is correct in accordance with the analysis and several similar samples must be taken.
Lastly, you must ensure your finished product is stored in the correct refrigerated conditions and if it needs to be transported, it must remain in the same conditions throughout the process.
Why Food Sampling is Effective
There are many options available to help enrol consumers by using free samples, as a free sample is a great marketing tool and they are generally cheaper than most traditional advertising methods. Here are four reasons why sampling methods work well:
- Breaks down price barrier – ensuring a product has the correct price point is vital and offering free samples can help consumers to try products that may be outside their usual budget and products that they may have never tried before.
- No strings attached – giving consumers access to free samples, ensures they don’t have to commit to purchasing this product and gives the consumer time to think about the purchase, especially if it is their first time buying it at the risk of not liking it.
- Taste and quality – usually the best marketing for food items is the taste and quality and by offering free samples you can create a key marketing strategy as consumers can try the products and therefore know for definite if they like the product or not.
- Reciprocation – when consumers receive free samples, it means there are no strings attached for consumers. Although, consumers may buy a product because they feel obligated to after getting something for free.
What Are the Four Basic Sampling Methods?
Sampling is an essential stage in the food and beverage industry and there are four main sampling methods:
- Traditional retail – traditional retail stores usually offer free samples for their customers as they walk round the store and food sampling within retail stores is the most recognisable form of sampling as it encourages customer to taste the foods very close to the product to ensure fast and easy sales
- From the company – consumers sometimes contact companies who request samples and these companies may oblige because offering free samples directly, the company shows a sense of confidence and transparency and if customers have information and a sample in their hands, it can help to drive sales for the store.
- Delivery and subscriptions – as food delivery becomes more common, sampling has now gone from food companies to customers doorsteps and with delivery and paid subscriptions now have the opportunity to get their products noticed by utilising e-commerce.
- Technology – many companies use technology to help engage their customers, such as; QR codes on crisp packets or sweet wrappers. Meaning customers are likely to buy again and may actually win a prize alongside.
Ensuring Safety with Food Sampling and Inspections
The industry has moved from a reactive to a preventative approach in regards to food safety risks and this is subject to a general international consensus.
This new approach requires all inspectors to ensure they have the ability to analyse processes and assess the relevance and efficiency of many different paths. This data is then used when risk planning and making policy level decisions.
Therefore, sampling is an important part of preventing food risks and new approaches are being developed on a regular basis.
About AQM BD
With over 25 years of experience in quality assurance, AQM BD is ready to help your import and export business build a robust quality assurance plan. Our many service locations are prepared to be your one-stop-shop for inspection needs. Including, production monitoring, pre-shipment and sorting inspections and everything in between. Contact us today to find out how we can help you navigate your current quality control challenges.
Related content:
Understanding the Basics of Food Quality Control
Food Audit and Safety Standards
Sources:
hygienefoodsafety.org/why-is-food-hygiene-important/
spendedge.com/blogs/quality-control-food-industry
sciencedirect.com/topics/food-science/food-sampling
haccpmentor.com/how-to-take-a-food-sample/
fooddive.com/news/4-food-sampling-techniques-and-why-they-work/402724/
fao.org/food/food-safety-quality/capacity-development/inspection/en/
fda.gov/food/compliance-enforcement-food/sampling-protect-food-supply
