[Assessing the Critical Factors and Their Impact on the Efficiency of a Food Management System in the UK Sandwich Industry]

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Acknowledgement

I would take this opportunity to thank my research supervisor, family and friends for their support and guidance without which this research would not have been possible.

DECLARATION

I, [type your full first names and surname here], declare that the contents of this dissertation/thesis represent my own unaided work, and that the dissertation/thesis has not previously been submitted for academic examination towards any qualification. Furthermore, it represents my own opinions and not necessarily those of the University.

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Abstract

The availability of data that is continuously measured, monitored and validated under European Union (EU) legislation and its component regulations is responsible for the apparent food safety and good hygiene in the UK sandwich industry. The various manufacturing standards such as code of practice for sandwich manufacturing, sandwich bars etc are based on the legislation and associated guidelines. This paper provides a critical analysis of the management systems currently used in the sandwich industry with the objective of improving the quality and utilisation of data in a more timely, complete, meaningful and consistent manner. The achievement of this objective will further increase the efficiency of food management system in the UK sandwich industry. From a critical appraisal of existing evidence on HACCP principles, standards guidelines and their impact on current production management, it was possible to establish a baseline for the existing management systems used in the commercial production of chicken-mayo sandwich. Undoubtedly, such a baseline was responsible for facilitating the level of benchmarking required to assess progress in subsequent reviews and assessment. Special focus is directed to chicken sandwich because of its dominant position at number one, following the latest British Sandwich Association (BSA) survey, Winship (2011). This survey gives the UK sandwich industry 35% share of £6.0bn market, from a humble beginning at £3.00bn in 2006.

Table of Contents

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION7

Research background7

Research Questions8

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW9

Introduction9

Food Safety9

Food Management System10

Sandwich Industry Analysis10

Original Convenience Food11

Technological Revolution12

Retail Sandwich Market12

Emergence of Sandwich Bars13

Industry Restructuring13

Facts and Figures Concerning the UK Sandwich Industry15

General Facts16

Summary17

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY18

Research Design18

Primary Research18

Benefits and Disadvantages of Mixed Method19

Validity19

Data collection20

Research instrument20

Sample for survey21

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS23

Evaluation the assessment of critical factors23

HACCP implementation in Sandwich market23

Change24

Expertise24

Time and money25

Documentation26

Validation27

Verification27

Supplier vetting28

Confidence29

Reduced costs29

Focus29

Team building30

Organisational development30

Legal protection30

Trading opportunities31

Common weaknesses in HACCP systems37

The future development of HACCP38

Improving HACCP analysis: improved process flow diagram construction39

Extending the scope of HACCP: criminal malicious product contamination39

CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION42

Integrated HACCP control systems42

Quality assurance systems44

Developing a quality system46

CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION47

REFERENCES49

APPENDIX55

Chapter 1: Introduction

This research will be demonstrating that, whilst, a great amount of literature review exists on both the critical factors and food management systems in sandwich industry as a whole, there has been so far no in-depth information available and what is more awful is that a lot of research is lacking related to the UK sandwich industry. In addition to this, there no sufficient research available related to the affects of the critical factors on the food management system of Unite ...