Steer Clear Of Quality Pitfalls

Avoid five of the biggest QA/QC missteps when bringing store brand products to market.

Everyone makes mistakes. But when a supplier makes a mistake that negatively affects a store brand product's quality, it could damage the reputation of the entire brand.

To ensure quality is never compromised, retailers should make sure to avoid five common quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) missteps.

1 Failure to create product specifications

When retailers run into a quality issue with a store brand food product, it often can be traced back to the absence of product specifications, says Sharrann Simmons, director of product marketing with Silliker Inc., Chicago.

"It is critical to have comprehensive finished product specifications for all private label food products — whether produced in-house or by an external contract manufacturer," she explains.

Bob Frayer, international director of engineering with Ann Arbor, Mich.-based NSF International, notes that without product specifications, a manufacturer might create product variations that cannot be measured or quantified by the retailer. To avoid this problem, retailers should develop detailed specifications that cover all aspects of the product (e.g., packaging, labeling, performance, microbiological, regulatory, etc.). Retailers could create the specifications themselves, or they could rely on an independent company to create the specifications.

"It's often useful for the retailer to identify product attributes that represent what [it] would like to sell, and have an independent third party like NSF International develop a specification around that product," he states.

2 Paying too little attention to in-transit quality issues

With an increasing number of store brand products being sourced from overseas, retailers run the risk of letting problems go undetected during the transportation process, notes Scott MacLennan, director of store brands at UL-STR, Enfield, Conn. For example, the risk with over-the-counter products often begins once a container of products is placed onto an ocean-going vessel, he says.

"Retailers need validation and documentation to show that the product was not adversely affected or adulterated in transit," he explains. "The transportation protocol must ensure that strength, purity and quality will not be compromised."

To avoid this misstep, retailers need to create formal — and written — standard operating procedures and training records to demonstrate awareness and understanding, MacLennan says. Retailers should use calibrated data-loggers to capture any out-of-specification information related to thermal excursions or excessive relative humidity spikes.

"Shipments should be held until data is reviewed and found to be acceptable," he points out. "There should also be an organoleptic evaluation to ensure the product did not pick up any malodors from being stored in the containers or any other consumer/end-user perceivable attributes."

3 Failure to provide proper allergen information

One of the top reasons for product recalls in 2011 was inaccurate or missing allergen statements and labeling on packaging, Simmons says. And even if a product is recalled before major harm is done, the recall could prove to be just as costly and damaging to a brand's reputation as a food poisoning outbreak.

"In the consumer's mind, an outbreak is an outbreak," she explains.

According to Simmons, retailers should make sure their private label QA/QC programs include an "allergen management section." The section should take care of understanding allergen sources (ingredients, cross-contamination, etc.), creating a proper labeling statement for allergen-containing products, and overseeing sanitation procedures to minimize the risk of cross-contamination.

4 Not staying on top of product updates and changes

During a product or a product line's lifecycle, changes could take place in product composition, line extensions, labeling and ingredient suppliers, Simmons says. Whether a product is made in-house or by an outside manufacturer, retailers need to make sure they are able to fully monitor all changes that are made to it — and be sure that none of those changes will negatively impact safety or quality.

For example, a manufacturer might choose to change ingredient suppliers, which could require a change in a product's allergen labeling, she says. Or the manufacturer might add additional colors or flavors to products when creating a line extension for a retailer.

"If the [main] product was lemon-flavored with natural flavors and citric acid, adding a vanilla flavor might change the pH of the product and impact bacterial growth over the shelf life," she explains.

Simmons says retailers should follow a predefined process when making any significant changes to a product or line.

"This process should include reviewing the impact of the product change on a variety of product attributes, including composition, consumer acceptability and product safety," she notes. "Changes in ingredients and/or [the] ingredient supplier should also be considered product changes and included in the process review. Your product change process should be thoroughly discussed with all your current suppliers."

5 Ignoring customer feedback

When customers air complaints about a particular product, retailers need to make sure they pay proper attention to every single one of them, MacLennan says.

"The bottom line is that all complaints are important," he says. "Complaints can help a retailer understand possible manufacturing or product design oversights or defects that affect product safety and/or performance characteristics. Complaints can also assist vendors with evaluating their internal QA release policies, identifying labeling that needs to be changed, or learning product performance attributes that can only be seen after exposure to a large end-user group."

To avoid this misstep, retailers should monitor complaints and returns, and compare the information gathered to the number of units sold, MacLennan advises. An "alert limit" and an "action limit" should be set based on what the retailer sees as a trigger point.

In particular, drugstore chains could benefit by employing this strategy because they often don't have customer service desks in their stores.

"These retailers need to combine returns and complaints, and compare and contrast this information to units sold because store level returns may not be logged as a call into the customer service center would," MacLennan says. "Most returns are hidden complaints that are not captured. Samples need to be requested from the complainant and evaluated by a QA team."