CASE STUDIES FOOD ANALYSIS FNA400S

The following case studies are to be discussed amongst yourselves in the group and a 30 minute

presentation prepared for the class. Each group will be required to present a solution for the case

study assigned to them. But each group will be expected to submit a report for each case study.

Presentations will be in the last week of classes and reports are due on the day of presentations

1. As the HR manager of ADZ Foods, you are tasked with filling vacancies as a result of

expansions in your company.

Your most pressing objective is to fill the newly created post of food analyst in the chemistry

labs.

Draw up a detailed job description for the post. Explain / motivate the reason for each item

on the job description.

2. During the course of your work as the food analyst at ADZ foods, you decide to put together

SOPs for the handling, preparation and storage of raw materials and finished product

samples prior to analyses. During your research into the topic, you discovered that there are

numerous physical, chemical, biological and biochemical techniques, depending on sample

type and desired outcomes that can be used to prepare samples. Some of these include

simple, single stepped processes whilst others can be complex and multi stepped.

Draw up your SOPs for analyses of the raw materials identified in (3) below.

3. You have just been appointed as the food analyst at ADZ Foods; your tasks include carrying

out analyses of materials from your suppliers and finished products from your factory. Your

suppliers include:

a. Granary – Stores its grains with which you are supplied in silos

b. Fishery – Frozen fish in boxes on a pallet (1.5m X 1.5m X 1.5m)

c. Grain packers – Stores grains in 50Kg bags

d. Meat packers - Frozen meat in boxes on pallets (same dimensions a s fish)

e. Spice packers – Spices in 2Kg boxes, 2Kg glass jars and 50Kg bags

f. Nut processing factory – different types of nuts packaged in 50Kg full barrier bags.

g. Dairy Processing plant – MSNF and whole (dry) milk packed in 50Kg containers.

Outline in detail, a standard operating procedure for testing samples from each of these

suppliers, from obtaining the samples to the tests utilised.

4. For each of the products listed in (3) above you as the food analyst need to draw up SOPs for

your technicians to follow when analysing for safety. Draw up your SOP using the following

guidelines:

a. Identify potential hazards in each raw material.

b. Describe a sampling method to be used for each raw material

c. Give a stepwise description of the sample preparation method to be used,

explaining the reasons for each step.

d. Identify equipment to be used for final analysis and why.

e. Draw a flow diagram for each method from sampling to analyses, explaining each

step along the way.

5. As the new food analysts at ADZ Foods, you realise that your new department is lacking

several essential pieces of equipment that would make doing your job more feasible.

Motivate your CEO to allocate funds to obtain these pieces of equipment which include:

a. HPLC Chromatograph

b. GC – MS chromatograph

c. ICP – MS

d. PCR analyser

6. As the food analyst at ADZ foods, you are required to liaise with the QA manager as far as

QA systems implementation is concerned. From your end, it is required that you have a

traceability system in place in order to be able to identify potentially problematic

samples/products.

a. Incorporate a traceability system into your SOPs for all analyses carried out in your

lab..