Heading back to the U.S. for our fall Board Meeting, the first thing I do when I land is head to the store for breakfast to buy my favorite go-to whole milk plain yogurt. Right away I notice the taste is different than what I am used to, not bad, just lighter. I’m expecting my typical full fat almost ice cream feel, but instead a lighter spoonful. Tastes good, but different experience. There are many different influences from recipes, seasonal butterfat levels to different customer tastes. Sensory preferences can change a lot, especially coming from Norway to Minnesota it is quite noticeable. While other brand name products aim to maintain the same flavors and textures from one country to the next. Quality must develop consistent engineering and testing plans to maintain conformity and manage risk, but also accommodate to geographic limitations.

While most of my go-to dairy brands change and there are a few that I stay loyal to when I travel. I can buy Jarlsberg cheese whether I am in Ireland, Norway or the U.S. and it tastes the same. This requires a team to ensure the equipment operates consistently between location, ingredients, training, SOPs and good controls for monitoring microbiological and solid levels. Many factors can shape sensory or introduce unwanted pathogens. Poor training may leave operators with different routines that result in varying cleaning cycles or fermentation times. Without good SOPs, training may not properly outline all areas to monitor. It takes a team to make sure that all risks are covered.

More importantly, it requires a proactive attitude or culture to look for department overlaps to mitigate risk or maintain consistent products. One team I work with has a standardized data collection and analysis program for receiving raw milk. These SOPs include materials, sample frequency to lab procedures. The idea is that more control and analysis on the front end then product Quality follows. Preventative controls in receiving should create good insight into the rest of the process to improve Quality Control. Control becomes more important as companies introduce brand names in new territories and seek to maintain consistency.

By Anne Bigalke
VP of International Markets, QualiTru Sampling Systems
anne@qualitru.com   Follow Anne on LinkedIn