Abstract
Background and Objectives: In order to achieve to food safety and promoting health protection, water used in food and drinking industries should be in compliance with quality requirements. Presence of any chemical and microbial contamination in water has potential of transmission to final food products. So quality control of water in order to compliance with legislative standards is important. At present study to address the existing condition and to present the suitable and applicable quality control method, the main drinking, dairy and caning industries in the East Azerbaijan province were investigated as a representative sample of all kind of mentioned industries.
Materials and Methods: Considering the frequency of industries, number of labors and production capacity, 9 industrial units with variety of products such as fruit juice, dairy products, lemonade, beverage, tomato derivatives, jams, was selected. To collection of required information, a questionnaire was designed and filed out by direct surveillance and interview.
Results: After analyzing and interpretation of data, the results showed that there are many critical points without having any quality control plan which may led to water pollution and it’s transforming to the products matrix among these industries. The majority of factories did not have acceptable program for sampling of consumed water and chemical and microbial analyzing and only water of boilers was controlled for hardness and alkalinity levels. Unfortunately occurrence of heavy metals and pesticides in water was not being investigated. Most of authorities had not adequate awareness and specialty about water pollution and water quality control. At 45% of studied industries, there was not acceptable control program for water quality. Application of HACCP program as an effective tool for food safety was not practically implicated.
Conclusion: Control of chemical and microbiological quality of water at studied industries was not satisfying. For protection of consumers health and achieving food safety, the necessity of application of water quality plan and control system with all educated personnel and facilities is extremely undeniable.