There is increased concern regarding global food safety in the present modern era. Irish pork incident that happened in 2008 caused the country-wide destruction of pork products and resulted in a fright of food borne illnesses throughout the northern global hemisphere. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported 76 million cases in which people suffered food borne disease every year. About 300,000 were hospitalized while about 5000 people died in the year 2009. The US Department of Agriculture has divined a continual increase in food-related diseases in the future. Therefore, it is vital for processed foods manufacturer to take mitigation strategies and framework during production and supply chain. Moreover, it is necessary to communicate the consumers or customers well in time to prevent them from diseases.
Many manufacturers forced to modify the entire production run of a particular product due to safety concerns. For instance, Peanut Corporation of America faced safety issues for their peanut butter by the year 2009. In the recent past, the Food and Drug Administration of the United States reported many incidents ranging from labeling to packaging errors having serious health hazards.
Effective management of processed food products in the context of safety has a great challenge for the industry as well as governments. Unhygienic and contaminated food products can make a potential threat for public health. This is imperative to evaluate existing safety challenges that may generate food borne diseases. The reliable knowledge management can facilitate decision-making during manufacturing of processed food. This all is possible by employing reliability engineering that is based on both qualitative and quantitative characteristics. The measurements of reliability is important for consumer requirements compliance that demands a state of art design in reliability to attain the goals. Reliability engineering emphasizes the significance of moral engineering principles to ensure the product reliability. Identification of possible causes of failure and eradication can help to improve product reliability.
In conclusion, the processed food industry has its unique set of hazards. It is overwhelmed by a long history of fatality and disease occurrence. The study emphasizes the importance of reliability engineering including knowledge management model within the supply chain of the food industry, effective communication and identification of steps to facilitate the industry. In addition, decision management model will enable the industry to overcome the product safety issues and incidents as well as rebuild trust among their customers.
