ISHS Acta Horticulturae 370: International Symposium on Tropical Fruits
QUALITY PROCESSING AND PACKING FOR MACADAMIA NUT |
| Author: | J. McIntyre |
| Abstract:
With a subject like this where do you start, does processing start at the orchard or does it start at the processing plant? After much thought I decided that it is neccessary to start at the orchard and at least cover the basic principals. First of all let us define Quality: Quality has been defined by many people in many different ways. Dr. W Edwards Deming, one of the “forefathers” of quality management has defined quality stating “Good quality does not necessarily mean high quality. It means a predictable degree of uniformity and dependability, at a low cost, with quality suited to the market.” We can look at two areas in this definition. Firstly, the fact that quality should be “suited to the market” is the most important part of the definition. In other words, as a processor you must know your market and produce a level of quality suited to that market. Secondly, it is the presence of “a predictable degree of uniformity and dependability” that allows the processor to know that the specified level of quality is being achieved and maintained. Without these two factors, a processor may be wasting money on unnecessary procedures or losing market share by producing ununiform product. Now lets look at the overall chain of events in the Macadamia cycle from the nursery to warehousing. You will see that there are many steps, involving many people. This paper covers those events from the harvest to the packaging of raw bulk kernel. It is essential to focus on the methods of producing quality kernel which will always satisfy the customers requirement. Any effective quality program will have in place:
Figure 1 - The Macadamia Chain - From Nursery to Consumer | |
Download Adobe Acrobat Reader (free software to read PDF files) | |
