A ‘best practice score’ for the assessment of food quality and safety management systems in fresh-cut produce sector

• Development of a tool assessing the performance of Food Safety and Quality Management Systems.
• Application in SMEs of the fresh-cut produce sector.
• Classification of SMEs.
• Benchmarking tool for SMEs.

The purpose of the present work was to develop a tool for the assessment of the Food Safety and Quality Management Systems (FSQMSs) applied in 75 (68% participation rate) micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) of the fresh-cut produce sector. Initially, a diagnostic quantitative questionnaire was constructed. The design and the implementation of this questionnaire were influenced by the SMEs business environment. The most common certified FSQMS was according to ISO 22000:2005 (N = 54). Twenty-eight SMEs had primary production in their process. Using factor analysis with the principal components method, six factors (PCF) were extracted that explained 67% of the total information of the FSQMSs performance. The six factors were ‘shelf life validation’, ‘prerequisites’, ‘product labeling’, ‘sanitation facilities’, ‘packaging’ and ‘deviation control’. The quartiles of the PCF scores may be used as cut-offs for a simple SMEs classification (poor, moderate, good and excellent). The proposed tool and overall methodology can be used by an SME to provide the ‘Best Practice Score’ for the FSQMSs. It will also be an input in management review for deciding opportunities of FSQMS improvement.