User:Shawndouglas/sandbox/sublevel8

2. Standards and regulations affecting food and beverage labs

Societies around the world have grown to expect and depend on high-quality, nutritious foods and beverages, whether coming directly from a farm or being produced by a food and beverage manufacturer. With the history of food and beverage safety having a somewhat checkered past until the early twentieth century, this expectation hasn't always been easy to meet. However, with better understanding of food safety and greater efforts to standardize and regulate it, governments and producers have improved food quality and safety into the twenty-first century. Yet any assurances coming from these efforts to standardize and regulate are dependent upon rigorous and validated methods not only in the production facility but also in any laboratory making analyses for the facility.

This chapter will briefly examine the standards, regulations, guidance, and other factors globally driven by not only the demand for safer foods and beverages, but also that in many cases dictate what and how quality activities are conducted towards ensuring food safety around the world inside and outside the food and beverage laboratory.