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Abstract
Public food organizations have come in a relatively short period of time to operate in a highly complex business environment. As a result, quality and especially food safety became elements with new values, in a multidimensional approach of economy consumption. Simultaneously, the globalization of economic and social life has highlighted the need for a unitary approach on how to produce quality and safe products for the final consumer. For this reason, at the international level a series of standards have emerged that organizations have to follow to design, implement and certify food quality and safety management systems that benefit all parties involved.
The present paper aims at carrying out a comparative study of certification schemes of food safety management systems in an attempt to give organizations the opportunity to understand what type of quality management system is appropriate to the organizational framework in which they are located, according with established objectives. The research is based on a comprehensive study of specific literature, articles and reference papers, the collection of data being carried out through comparative analysis of international standards, private certification schemes for food safety management products and systems, in the desire to clarify the different approaches but also the similarities and differences between them.
Keywords: quality management system, food safety, certification schemes, international standards, quality
JEL classification: F23, L2, M16
Introduction
The fast-paced lifestyle of today, globalization and market interconnection, gastronomic cultural harmonization, have led to major changes in how food is prepared and consumed by consumers, with positive effects such as rapid advances in food technology, food preparation and product packaging in order to ensure the quality and safety of food in the logistics of goods. Considered in this context, the issue of food safety and quality generates common efforts and responsibilities for all those involved in the complex chain that includes agricultural production, processing, transport, storage and consumption of food commodities. Today, more and more specialists in the field suggest that food safety is in fact a consumer's right to use safe products for consumption and is an intrinsic quality of the food, namely the right not to affect his / her life and health. At European and international level, producers and service providers directly or indirectly involved in the...