Qualidade na indústria agroalimentar: situação atual e perspectivas

Abstract

This paper aims to discuss quality management in six Brazilian agrifood chains: beverages (beer and soft drinks), biscuit, meat, chocolate, processed tomato and dairy. This work is a multi-case exploratory study among 34 firms in those agrifood chains. In a general sense, the firms studied are very different in terms of quality management. The control of the products or raw material for inspection, with special attention to satisfy the governmental health rules, is the most common situation. However, there are strong evidences that this general situation is changing. Several firms are going to employ more advanced systems in quality management (total quality management and quality assurance system).