implementation of iso 9000 to the food industry: an overview

Implementation of ISO 9000 to the food industry: an overview

Michalis M. Efstratiadis, Argiro C. Karirti and Ioannis S. Arvanitoyannis

Laboratory of Food Chemistry and Biochemistry, Department of Food Science and Technology, Faculty ofAgriculture, Box 265, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54 006 Thessaloniki, Greece

Since the early 1980s, manufacturing industries worldwide have seen a revolutionin the way they operate. Consumers have become more and more demanding andthe key to company/firm survival is the recognition of customers’ satisfaction. In away, companies have been forced to enhance the quality of their processes and theirproducts. Some of them chose to establish internal quality systems whereas othershave opted for employing a general quality system standard, such as the BS 5750 orthe ISO 9000 series. In Greece, a great part of the companies (about 80%) employquality system standards, among which the highest percentage (80%) belong to foodmanufacturing industries.

Introduction

The ISO 9000 series of standards consists offive separate standards within the ISO 9000family. ISO 9000 and ISO 9004 provide guide-lines for the selection of the appropriate qualitymanagement system and interpretation of theISO 9000 series. ISO 9001, 9002 and 9003represent three distinct models for a qualitymanagement system. Companies can registertheir quality management systems to only ISO9001, 9002 or 9003 (Surak & Simpson, 1994).The first step to develop a document controlsystem is to determine the business processesthat are critical for meeting customer require-ments. The next step is to ensure that theprocesses comply with every aspect of thestandard. Among the first companies certifiedaccording to ISO 9000 are Heinz, Kellog,Nestle and PepsiCo.

ISO 9000 provides a mechanism to bringabout systematic improvement but it does notimprove performance by itself (Hoyle, 1997).

Therefore, achieving ISO registration shouldnot be equated with achieving world-classquality since the ISO 9001, 9002 and 9003describe the minimum standards for a qualitymanagement system (Surak & Simpson,1994).

Over the last two decades an enhancement oflife status and self-image took place. This led todemand for wholesome, unadulterated, nutri-tious and safe to eat products and goods. It isalso expected that food manufacturers andretailers ensure the quality of the purchasedfood at all times (Malhotra, 1996).

Food products do not always meet consumerexpectations and there are several reasons forthis, among which the most frequently occur-ring are: poor quality raw materials, inadequateprocess control during production, poorlytrained process operators and contamination byspoilage organisms, chemicals or foreignbodies.

Correspondence to: Argiro C. Kapirti.

ISSN 0963-7486 printed/ISSN 1465-3478 online00/060459-15 © 2000 Taylor & Francis Ltd

International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition (2000) 51, 459–473

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11

Cut-off date for each cycle

460 M.E. Efstratiadis

Food companies in particular are required toimplement ISO 9000 and Hazard AnalysisCritical Control Point (HACCP) preferablywithin the frame of Total Quality Management(TQM) (Jura & Gruna, 1988). TQM is a goalwhich requires every individual in every depart-ment of an organisation to be dedicated toquality control and/or quality improvement(Hubbard, 1996).

The parameters by which food product qual-ity may be measured include product com-pliance with specifications, legislation andindustrial standards concerning characteristicssuch as composition, microbiology and foodsafety, colour, flavour, texture, shelf-life andpackaging; product technical performance;price; cost benefits in use relative to com-petitive products; reliability of technical per-

formance and/or product consistency frombatch to batch.

ISO does not itself publish certifications ofconformity to ISO 9000. This is within theindependent responsibility of the various certifi-cation bodies around the world. Therefore, thereis no ‘official’ central database of ISO 9000certificates worldwide. Due to the absence of acentral information bureau for the companiesand their demand for adequate guidance on theimplementation of ISO 9000 series, ISO under-took the annual survey of the new certificationsawarded worldwide.

Experimental

This article aims to provide an overview of thecurrent situation of ISO 9001/2 certified com-

Figure 1. Percentage distribution of the certified companies for each cycle of ISO survey per continent.

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Average of withdrawncertificates as percentage (%)of total number of awarded tothe countries of the specificgroups

2.21.727 1.8

2.4

7.7657

Group of countries

Implementation of ISO 9000 to the Food industry 461

panies globally, per continent, with emphasis onEuropean Union countries and Greece in partic-ular. Furthermore, the collected statistical datawere correlated with the results of a ques-tionnaire sent to 500 Greek companies (Appen-dix I).

Results and discussion

Global presentation of ISO 9001/2 certifiedcompaniesThe distribution of the certified companies foreach cycle of ISO survey (annually) per con-tinent is shown in Figure 1.

The following conclusions arise from a closeinspection of Figure 1:

(1) The total number (worldwide) of ISO 9000certified companies increases steadily everyyear. At least 226,349 certificates wereawarded in 129 countries worldwide untilthe end of December 1997 whereas thecorresponding number for 1996 was162,704 certificates in 116 countries; that is63,646 new certificates during the year1997.

(2) The United Kingdom, with more than

31,000 certified companies, still shows ahigh rate of increase of new certificates,while the Far East countries, with nearly13,000 certificates, show a clearly growinginterest by their companies for ISO 9000implementation.

Germany and the USA lead the list of thecountries with the highest growth in ISOcertification over the year 1997, with 7677and 5968 new certificates respectively. Thisis followed by the Republic of Korea,France and the United Kingdom, whichcount more than 3500 new certificates andare also showing a steady growth (ISOSurvey, 1997).

(3) The countries that successfully implemen-ted ISO 9000 for the first time in 1997 wereBelarus, Bosnia, Bermuda, Grenada, Lib-yan Arab Jamahirlya, Moldova, Mongolia,Papua New Guinea, Republic of San Mar-ino, Senegal and Sudan.

(4) A number of certificates are withdrawnevery year for a variety of reasons, butmainly due to noncomformities. A totalnumber of 4233 certificates were with-drawn up to the end of December 1997, thepercentage of which per continent or groupof countries is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Percentage of withdrawn certificates per continent or group of countries up to December 1997.

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(5) It is remarkable that Europe presents thelowest percentage of withdrawn certificatesdespite the fact that most of the companieswhose ISO 9000 certificates were with-drawn are European (almost 50%).

(6) USA and Far East countries also presentlow percentages of withdrawn certificates.Far East countries are mainly representedby Japan, China and Korea. More specifi-cally, after the end of the Second World WarJapan has been leading the quality stabilityby implementing Total Quality Manage-ment. More recently, the Republic of Korea,Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan havemade rapid steps toward industrializationthus becoming the new industrial ‘giants’ ofAsia. On the other hand, China is expectedto show a large number of new certifica-tions following its fast industrialization,although it only recently entered the field ofISO 9000 certifications. The latter becomesobvious also from the corresponding num-bers of newly awarded ISO 9000 certifi-

cates during 1997, which show that Chinafollows Japan (5698 and 6487 new certifi-cates, respectively) (ISO Survey, 1997).

(7) The percentage of withdrawn certificates inGreece (2.64%) is quite close to the corre-sponding average of Europe (2.2%).

More specifically, the industrial branch dis-tribution of Greek certified companies (bythe four main certification bodies in Greece,that is ELOT, Bureau Veritas Quality Inter-national (BVQI), TUV and DNV, is shown inFigure 3.

Generally, the majority of the companiesprefers ISO 9002 Standard of the ISO 9000series for their certification, with the exceptionof the cement industry and the hotel and touristbusiness companies which tend to opt for ISO9001 Standard instead.

The food and drink industry shows a highernumber of certifications than the other indus-trial branches and mostly opts for implementingISO 9002 Standard.

Figure 3. Industrial branch distribution of Greek certified companies (ELOT, BVQI, TUV, DNV, 1999).

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Figure 4 shows the distribution of the certi-fied food manufacturing or processing com-panies (by the four main certification bodiesfunctioning in Greece listed above among thevarious food and drink industry branches.

The corresponding distribution of the overall(ISO 9001 and ISO 9002) certified Greek foodcompanies per sector is shown in Figure 5. It isremarkable that the meat processing companiespresent a low percentage of certification com-pared to the other main branches of the foodindustry.

Figure 6 shows the corresponding percentagedistribution of the overall (ISO 9001 and ISO9002) certified Italian food companies versusthe main food industry branches.

The comparison of Figures 5 and 6 leads tothe following conclusions:

(1) The companies manufacturing beverages,drinks and coffee and the confectionery andsnacks manufacturing companies presentthe highest certification percentage among

the food industries in Greece, while the oiland margarines manufacturing companiesseem to have obtained the fewest ISO 9000certifications.

(2) The certified fruit and vegetable canningcompanies show high percentages in thedistribution among the Greek and theItalian food industry branches (10% forGreece and 11% for Italy) since bothcountries are characterized by a long agri-cultural tradition and production and, natu-rally, there can be no direct consumption ofthese products.

(3) The share of the oil/margarines branch inISO 9000 certification is almost equal forGreece and Italy (6% and 4%, respec-tively), as both countries are consideredtraditional oil producers, together withsome more Mediterranean countries, suchas Spain, Turkey, Tynisia, Lebanon, etc.

(4) The food packaging sector shares are low(1–1.5%) due to the unclear distinctionbetween the general packaging materials

Figure 4. Distribution of ISO 9001 and ISO 9002 Greek certified food companies against the main food industry branches(ELOT, BVQI, TUV, DNV, 1999).

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Packaging materials3%

Frozen foods3%

Oils/Margarines5%

Milk/Dairy products13%

Pasta/Flours/Bread14%

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11%

Confectionery/Snacks17%

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Beverages/Water/Coffee27%

Meat and meat products7%

Meat/Meat products/Fishery13%

Food transport and Conservation6%

Food packaging1%

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Milk and milk products29%

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11%

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10%

Frozen foods1%

Pre-cooked foods3%

Cereals4%

Oils and Margarines4%


and the food packaging materials industry.Therefore, the low percentages can hardlybe considered as representative as there arealso some other companies that manu-facture packaging materials which are usedfor food packaging by the food industry.

(5) The certified milk and diary foods manu-facturing companies stand for a large pro-portion of the total number of certifiedcompanies in both countries. However,these companies have a larger share in Italy

(29%) than in Greece (14%) because of therelatively greater corresponding percentageof the population that raises cattle and cowsin Italy.

(6) The share of Greece’s drink/water industryin the total number of certified companies is29%, that is three times larger than thecorresponding share in Italy (10%), obvi-ously due to the larger fruit production andthe existence of a larger number of naturalwater sources.

Figure 5. Percentage distribution of ISO 9000 certified food among the main food industry branches (ELOT, BVQI, TUV,DNV, 1999).

Figure 6. Percentage distribution of the ISO 9000 certified food companies per food industry sector (Sincert, 1999).

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(7) The Confectionery branch is also morecertified in Greece (18%) than in Italy(11%), due to the increased consumption ofthese foods (especially of the traditionalconfectionery), compared to the other Euro-pean countries (e.g. Italy).

(8) The share of Italy’s meat manufacturingindustry in the total number of certifiedcompanies is 13%, that is almost double thecorresponding share in Greece (7%), possi-bly because of the previously mentionedhigher cattle-raising activity in Italy com-pared to that in Greece.

(9) It is noteworthy that in Italy there arespecialized food industry branches, such aspre-cooked foods, food storage and preser-vation-dedicated factories, in contrast withGreece, due to the higher industrial level ofthe former.

Table 1 shows the percentage distributions ofISO 9001 and ISO 9002 certified companiesamong the main food industrial sectors inFrance and in Switzerland. The comparisonbetween ISO 9001 and ISO 9002 food com-panies in France and Switzerland shows thatthere is a clear difference in certification trends.Specifically, the food companies in France (asalready mentioned for Greece and Italy) opt forISO 9002 implementation because of the lowercertification cost and required paperwork.Besides, most of the food companies are ratherunwilling to maintain a certified Research &

Development (R & D) department, in contrastwith other industry branches. However, theinverse tendency was observed in Switzerlandwhere a significant increase of ISO 9001certified food companies was recorded.

By comparing these percentage distributionsit becomes evident that in most branches, apartfrom meat products, cereals and food packag-ing, substantial differences were observed:

(1) The drinks and water branch is muchgreater in France (almost one-quarter oftotal food industries) than in Switzerland.This could be due to the higher number ofwine companies in conjunction with thegreater agricultural production of the fruitswhich are processed as juices.

(2) The confectionery/snacks sector is alsomuch more developed in France than inSwitzerland. This could be attributed togreater consumption of sweets by Frenchconsumers since at least in southern Francethere is a greater resemblance to theMediterranean taste, which is more sugar/sweet taste oriented than in central ornorthern Europe.

(3) The, fruit and vegetable branch is almostthree times larger in France than in Switzer-land (15% vs 4%) for the same reasons.

(4) An almost similar tendency was recordedfor milk and dairy products, that is approx-imately five times more companies (14%and 3% for France and Switzerland, respec-

Table 1. Distributions of ISO 9001 and ISO 9002 certified companies among the main food industrial, sectors forFrance and Switzerland (AFAQ, SGS).

Food branch Industry

France

ISO 9001 ISO 9002 ISO 9001/2 (%)

Switzerland

ISO 9001 ISO 9002 ISO 9001/2 (%)

Meat/meat products/fishery 3 29 6 4 4 5Drinks/water 17 120 26 9 21 17Confectionery/snacks/coffee 4 54 11 8 5Fruit & vegetables canning 2 74 15 1 6 4Flour/pasta/bread 4 18 4 4 10 8Milk & dairy products 5 67 14 1 4 3Oils & margarines 4 14 3 3 18 12Cereals 1 9 2 1 1Pre-cooked foods 2 4 1 0Frozen foods 26 5 6 30 20Other (spicery, dietetic foods) 9 2 7 13 12Food packaging materials 3 52 11 3 19 13

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tively), because of traditionally well-orga-nized animal elevation in preponderant rolein the European Union.

(5) It is very interesting and quite surprising tonote that in oil and margarine productionSwiss ISO certified companies have theupper hand, although the opposite might beexpected in view of the olive tree cultiva-tion and oil production.

(6) Swiss ISO 9001/2 certified companies alsodominate the sector of frozen foods (20%and 5% for Swiss and French companies,respectively) probably because these foodsare imported and processed in Switzerlandin order to make up for their low agricul-tural production. However, this trend is notvery fashionable in France where con-sumers seem to favour the fresh products.

(7) Finally, spices and dietetic products seem tobe more widespread in Switzerland wherethey probably enjoy greater popularity thanin France, taking into account the highpercentage of certified Swiss companies(12%) compared to a poor 2% for France.

Figure 7 shows the percentage distribution ofthe certified food and drink companies amongthe food industry branches in France, Switzer-land and Norden countries (Sweden, Denmark,Finland and Norway). The comparative pre-sentation in Figure 7 aims to show the mainsimilarities and differences between France andNordic countries (European Community coun-tries) and Switzerland (non-member of theEuropean Community), which are industriallydeveloped countries/groups of countries. The

Figure 7. Percentage distribution of certified food and drink companies against the food industry branches in France,Switzerland and Scandinavian countries (Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway) (AFAQ, SGS, ISOFakta, 1999).

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conclusions of this comparison could be sum-marized as follows:

(1) France has the highest percentage of certi-fied companies in the water and drinksbranch. Furthermore, analysis proves thatthis high percentage is due: (a) to the wineproduction and water bottling, (b) to thefruit and vegetable eanning (as France stillhas greater agricultural production thanSwitzerland and Nordic countries and (c) tothe food packaging companies. However, atthis point should be mentioned that a largenumber of Scandinavian food packagingcompanies in this study have been placedamong general packaging materials com-panies thus making difficult the accurateclassification of companies under the labelof food packaging.

(2) It is noteworthy that France does notpresent a large number of certified com-panies in the cereals and flour/pasta/breadbranches, despite its increased agriculturalactivity. Furthermore, the French certified

meat processing companies present a com-paratively restricted share in the total num-ber of certified companies (7%), possiblybecause of the small industrial scale of thelatter, which have not been certified yet.

(3) Finally, Switzerland is characterized bylarge certification shares in the branches ofmeat and meat products (13%), comparableto the corresponding shares of Italy andNordic countries (13% and 10%, respec-tively), and confectionery (20%), compara-ble to those of Greece (18%).

(4) In general, Switzerland has the most bal-anced distribution, as Scandinavian coun-tries show a phenomenal partiality for dairyfoods (40%). Furthermore, the Scandi-navian certified companies of the bread,meat and confectionery branch comprise alarge share in the total number of certifiedcompanies (10%).

Figure 8 shows the percentage distribution ofthe ISO 9000 food companies per food industrysector in Spain, Portugal and Greece. The

Figure 8. Distribution of the ISO 9000 certified companies among the general industry branches in Spain and Portugal (IQP& AENOR, 1999).

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Germany


comparison of ISO 9001/2 certified food com-panies among the three Mediterranean countriesresulted in the following conclusions:

(1) Spain shows a tremendously high per-centage (50%) in the mineral water/drinkssector compared to 27% both for Greeceand Portugal. It is noteworthy that mostSpanish companies belong to the mineral/bottled water and wine sector, whereas thenumber of comparies producing fruit juiceis low.

(2) Greece is characterized by a solid 17%certified, mainly confectionery, companiescompared to a very low percentage (~2%)both for Spain and Portugal.

(3) Greece and Spain have similar percentagesof certified companies for meat (8% and 7%,respectively), dairy (12% and 13%, respec-tively) and food packaging, whereas Portu-guese companies for these three sectorsamount to less than 50% of the correspond-ing Greek and Spanish companies.

(4) Spain and Portugal show almost the samepercentage (6%) for various branches such

as agricultural products, service/transporta-tion (6%) and confectionery products/snaks(2%) and canned foods (5% and 3%,respectively).

(5) Greece and Portugal share the same percen-tages only for cereals (14%) and mineralwater/drinks, whereas for the rest of thebranches substantial differences wereobserved.

In general, the pairs of countries, Spain–Portugal and Spain–Greece, show numericallythe greatest similarities in terms of distributionof food companies to various branches.

The distributions of the certified companiesamong the general industry branches in Ger-many (DQS, 1999) and in Japan (The JapanAccreditation Board for Conformity Assess-ment, 1999) are presented in Figure 9. It isevident that there is a prospective correspond-ence between the two industrially developedcountries’ distributions, observed in shares inall branches, despite the fact that the twocountries belong to totally different continents.This would probably be explained by imprint of

Figure 9. Percentage of ISO 9000 certified companies against the general industry branches in Japan and Germany (sourcesDQS & JAB, 1999).

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Num

ber

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0

Industry section

180

Tobaccomanufacture

Foodmanufacture

Chemicalproducts

Papermanufacture

Local controllaboratories

Others

160

140

120

100

80

60

40

20

166

7 8 3 820

Dairy products17%Others

15%

Meat and meatproducts

15% Fats – Vegetableoil spreads

3%

Wines and spirits15%

Cereals6%

Bakery and floursector17%

Confectionery6%

Food packagingmanufacture

6%


the Japanese TQM implemented systems effec-tive in West and the European Union, inparticular.

It is noticeable that the sample used for thedistribution includes 177 food companies out of4304 in Spain and 36 food companies out of819 in Portugal.

Trends in ISO 9001/2 certified Greekcompanies: statistics and questionnairesFigure 10 shows the nature of the companiesthat took part in the research. Most of them

(almost 80%) belong to food manufacturingsection, another 4% are chemical companies,3% are tobacco manufacturers and 4% arequality control laboratories.

Figure 11 provides more detailed informationabout food manufacturers. Generally, very fewproducts are purchased by consumers directlyfrom the producers or the processors. Merchantsand retailers purchase the goods from producersand processors and resell them to customers.The food chain extends from farm to table andproducers and processors are called upon to

Figure 10. Distribution of Greek industries which responded to the questionaire.

Figure 11. Distribution of Greek food manufacturing companies among the main food branches.

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No18%

Yes82%


supply, since it is the retailers who determineand manipulate consumers’ opinions. As shownin Figure 11, the largest number of industriesthat replied belong to the bakery and floursector. The second highest percentage is inliquid milk and dairy products, followed bybrewing, wines and spirits; non-alcoholic bev-erages; meat and meat products; fish and fishproducts; fats and vegetable oil spreads; cerealsand food packaging manufacture. This classifi-cation to sectors can be attributed to theagricultural orientation of the Greek industry. Infact, Greece is an agricultural country whoseproducts cannot be always exported in their rawform but are often treated and processed intoready to eat products, preferably with longershelf-life. The four sectors (more than 64% oftotal) in Figure 11 stand for products of plantand animal origin; that is, bakery and beveragesoriginate from agricultural production whereasdairy and meat products from animalelevation.

It is encouraging that the greatest proportion(82%) of the companies in the sample thatresponded employ quality assurance/safety sys-tem standards, such as BS 5750, ISO 9000 andHACCP, or a system introduced by the com-pany itself (Figure 12). The definitions of themost important quality systems are given inTable 2.

The most commonly applied quality systemis the ISO 9000 series (Figure 13). The routewhich a firm/company takes to achieve qualityimprovement and to satisfy customer require-ments is certainly a difficult and painful onebecause it includes changes which can occa-sionally become pain barriers. Furthermore,chief executives have to train in order to learn tomanage more effectively.

It has been mentioned that the food manu-facturing industry is now one of the mostpowerful industries in the world: an industrywhere the turnover of some of the largestinternational companies is greater than the gross

Table 2. Definitions of the quality system standards

Standard Definition

BS (5750) EN ISO 9000: 1994 A series of general quality systems standards, being the British implementationof the ISO 9000: 1994 series of quality systems standards (formerly BS5750:1987 )

HACCP Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point. A process by which the hazards andrisks associated with the manufacture, storage and distribution of foods areidentified and assessed and appropriate controls which either eliminate orreduce the hazards are implemented at specific points.

ISO 9000: 1994 A series of general quality system standards and supporting documentspublished by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) andserving as models for the development and implementation of qualitymanagement systems (formerly ISO 9000: 1987).

Internal system Defined by specific company.

Figure 12. Percentage of companies that employ quality systems standards.

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Company’s internalsystem

9% ISO 900048%

BS 57507%

HACCP36%

More than 10046%

10–50 employees25%

50–100 employees20%

2–10 employees9%


national product of many countries (Bolton,1997). Although consumers nowadays expectquality, this term has been extensively used andoccasionally abused, since everybody seems tointerpret it in his/her own way. (Hoyle, 1997). Aclassical definition of product/service quality isthe quality that people will buy with satisfaction(Kessler, 1996). Companies have realised thatthe production of goods of satisfactory qualityfor the consumer should be decided well inadvance. This can be conducted effectively byconsidering the four aspects of quality: qualitycharacteristics (performance, reliability, pam-ing; cost (control and profit); delivery (produc-tion volume, sales, losses); and service (prob-lems after shopping) (Ishikawa, 1989).

Among the companies in this sample, most ofthem (46%) employ 100 or more employees,

25% of the firms employ between 10 and 50employees, 20% between 50 and 100 employ-ees and a very low percentage fewer than 10(Figure 14). Therefore, most companies (76%)look like being well structured, at least in termsof personnel they employ. These numbers arealso satisfactorily correlated with the corre-sponding figures for industries applying qualityand safety assurance systems (almost 90%) thusconfirming more from the food industries’ partin this direction.

Some information about the way that pro-duction control takes place is given in Figure15. Semi-automatic control is the most pop-ular means for the majority of the companies(49%), closely followed by full automaticcontrol (44%). Only in a very small numberof firms (7%) has automation not yet been

Figure 13. Percentage of Greek industries applying quality and safety assurance systems (BS 5750, ISO 9000, HACCP,respectively).**This percentage includes also the companies that are currently in the process of applying for quality assurancecertification.

Figure 14. Distribution of companies (%) in terms their personnel number.

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Semi-automatically49%

Automatically44%

Non-automatically7%


introduced in production control. This infor-mation could easily be correlated to the per-centage of companies having a quality controlsystem in place; 82% of the companies with acertain control system, numerically, is in sat-isfactory agreement with the 93% of com-panies with automatic and semi-automaticproduction control.

It is worth mentioning that 42% of theproducts are marked in agreement with thesuggestions of the European Union. Almostone-third of them (34%) informs the consumersabout the way the products should be used orpreserved, in order to ensure their longest safeshelf-life. Of great importance to the consumeris the risk of food poisoning. Poor or impropermaintenance of processing equipment can leadto all forms of product failure, from processingdefects to product contamination with metals,plastics, lubricants, etc. In approximately one-quarter of the cases (24%) packaging materialdiscloses information about the calories that theitem contains. This policy was first introducedin Japan and the USA and later applied by theEuropean Union members.

Conclusions

Only 1% of the companies of the samplebelieve that consumers today are less demand-ing and 18% believe that, at least for the timebeing, there is practically no difference com-pared with the past. The overwhelming majorityof comparies (81%) believe that nowadaysconsumers/clients have become more demand-ing and better quality oriented.

As for the mass media, television remains the‘undoubted ruler’, although people tend to thinkthat television advertising is less reliable thanradio or press advertising. Television advertis-ing is shown to have the strongest influence onpeople’s opinions, because it combines bothsight and sound.

Finally, the number of companies achievingregistration to ISO 9000 in Greece and world-wide is continuously increasing and pressure isoften brought to bear on suppliers, who areurged to follow suit or face the consequences.The domino effect has unfortunately meant thatmany small companies are forced to achieveregistration for fear of going out of business.

References

AFAQ (1999): List of certified companies, http:www.afa-q.org/

Bolton A (1997): Quality Management Systems for the FoodIndustry: a guide to ISO 9001/2. London: BlackieAcademic & Professional.

DQS (1999a): Erstmalig im Internet: die DQS-Kundenda-tenbank: http:www.dqs.de/inhalt/kdb/index.html

DQS (1999b): ISO 9000 Information: The next revision ofthe ISO 9000 series of standards. http:www.dqsertus-.com/iso.htm.

ELOT (1999): Register of Greek Certified Companies,http:www.elot.gr/profile/ccgr.html

Grenville R & Turnbull T (1995): A global company’sperspectives on ISO 9000. ASTM Standardization News6, 26– 29.

Hoyle D (1997): ISO 9000: quality systems handbook, 2ndedn. Oxford and Boston, MA: Butterworth-Heinemann.

Hubbard MR (1996): Statistical Quality Control for theFood Industry, 2nd edn. London and New York: Chap-mann & Hall.

Figure 15. Production control – how it is carried out.

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Ishikawa K (1985): What is Total Quality Control? TheJapanese way. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

ISO Fakta Norden http:www.isofakta.com/Juran JM (1988): Juran’s Quality Control Handbook, 3rd

edn. New York: McGraw-Hill.Kessler S (1996): Measuring and Managing Customer

Satisfaction. Milwaukee, WI: ASQC Quality Press.Kurtus R (1998): Comparing ISO 9000 and TQM.

http:www.ronkurtus.com/iso9000/isontqm.htmLarson M (1999): Tips for ISO 9000 Preparation: Build

Your Quality System, http:qualitymag.com/articles/feb99/0299f3.html

Malhotra N (1996): Marketing Research – An AppliedOrientation. Prentice – Hall International.

McDaniel C Jr & Gates R (1998): Marketing ResearchEssentials. South-Western College Publishing.

Oakland JS (1997): Total Quality Management, 2nd edn.Oxford Butterworth-Heinemann .

Silcock S (1992): Acceptance and Application of ISO 9002

in Europe and throughout the world. Food Control 3(2),76–79.

Sincert (1999): Italian National System for the Accredita-tion of Certification Bodies. http:www.sincert.it/UK/chisiamo.html

Steane A Edwin (1996): ISO 9000 The InternationalApproach to TQM. http:www.aabb.org/docs/iso9000.htm

Surak J & Simpson K (1994): Using ISO 9000 Standards asa Quality Framework. Food Technol. 48(12), 57–62.

Walters G (1974): Consumer Behavior – Theory andPractice. Prentice-Hall International.

The ISO Survey of ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 Certificates(1998): The Seventh Cycle: up to and including 1997.

The Japan Accreditation Board for Conformity Assessment(1999): Numbers of suppliers by the accredited scopesof suppliers, http:www.jab.or.jp/eng/htm/e-reg-qssta-list3.html

Appendix

1 The company belongs to:h Food Manufactureh Tobacco Manufactureh Chemical Productsh Paper Manufactureh Quality Control Laboratoriesh Others

If the company belongs to Food Manufacture,proceed to Questions 2:

2 In case the company belongs to the FoodManufacturing sector, tick the branch:h Dairy Productsh Cerealsh Bakery and Flour sectionh Wines and Spiritsh Fats-Vegetable oil spreadsh Meat and Meat Productsh Confectioneryh Food Packaging Manufactureh Others

3 In terms of personnel, the companyemploys:h 2–10 employeesh 10–50 employeesh 50–100 employeesh more than 100

4 The Production Control is carried out:h automatically

h semi-automaticallyh non automatically

5 The company applies a quality assurancesystem:h Yesh No

If yes, proceed to Question 6.

6 The company applies the following QualityAssurance System:h ISO 9000h HACCPh BS5750h Company’s internal system

7 Products are marked in agreement with thesuggestions of the European Union:h Yesh No

8 Packaging includes:h Information about caloriesh Inhalt information

9 During the last five years, consumersappear:h less demanding, compared to the pasth the sameh more demanding, compared to the past

10 The most efficient advertisement is:h television advertisementh radio advertisementh press advertisement

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implementation of iso 9000 to the food industry: an overview

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