Quality assurance practices of small size food manufacturing companies in Malaysia

Food quality assurance ensure food are safe and suitable for human consumption. The scope of food quality assurance covers the whole food supply chain, starting from raw materials, in process manufacturing and surfaces in contact with food. Most of previous studies on quality assurance were conducted in the bigger food manufacturing companies with limited study identified in the cases in the small companies. This study has been conducted to determine the extent of implementation of quality assurance practices of the small sized food manufacturing companies. Survey questionnaire were emailed to the respondents who have authority in quality assurance of their respective companies. Data collected was analyzed statistically using SPSS version 22.0. Collected data was first tested for its reliability with Cronbach alpha followed by descriptive statistics to identify the extent implementation of quality assurance practices. In was found that GMP had the highest level of implementation among the small sized food manufacturing companies in Malaysia. This was followed in there order of HACCP, ISO 9001 and the TQM. This study successfully demonstrated the major dimensions of various types of quality assurance systems. Company can use the questionnaire developed for this research work to guide them in implementing quality assurance