Práticas de gestão da qualidade na produção de queijo coalho : o caso de Pernambuco

Abstract

This work aims to analyze the quality of management practices used by rennet cheese producers of Pernambuco, addressing the legal aspects of its production and marketing and the perspective that addresses the elements related to the needs and desires of the consumer of this product. The cheese curds can be considered as one of the most popular foods in the Northeast, and represents a major challenge both in meaning as a social and cultural representation, as the economic role it plays. The cheese curd is between products derived from milk, which has more simplified process and manufacturing equipment demand and low complexity technology. In this sense, the scenario that presents itself is great diversity in the form and design of the product method and consequently varying levels of quality in the aspects of health, taste, texture and presentation. The justification of this work is grounded both in the realization of the importance of cheese curds for the region, as the understanding of the need to modernize production in order to meet increasingly demanding markets and consumers with higher levels of information and awareness about food quality . The theoretical framework consisted of literature on quality as a concept and management, using works of the main authors of the subject as Deming, Juran, Crosby and Feigenbaum; literature on consumer behavior, especially on the purchase decision process; manuals and guidelines on the rennet cheese production process, and legislation dealing with pesquisa.que theme is both animal products, the specific legislation on the production of cheese curds, especially the State Law No. 13,376 of 20 December 2007. in order to meet the proposed objective, data were collected from interviews with producers of untamed region of Pernambuco, as well as interviews with traders and consumers of the product, the latter in the Metropolitan region of Recife. The sample used consisted of six companies taken as case studies, a total of nine production units that make up the Association for cheese rennet Certification of Agreste of Pernambuco. From the findings it was established the consistency of quality management practices in both the steps leading up to the production, from the suppliers of raw material, as in the steps of transformation of raw materials into the final product, as within the agricultural industry structure. Such consistency was not observed in the quality of management practices from the distribution of the product until its delivery to the consumer. the importance of logistics intermediaries both in distribution and in product quality maintenance as it is transferred to the retail outlets was found, in addition to identifying the opportunity to strengthen the relationship between producer and point of sale to strengthen a link can increase the quality assurance until the product reaches the consumer. consumer perspective in which the cheese curds and seen as a healthy product and not expensive, and the difficulty that this consumer has to differentiate artisan cheese curds non artisanal cheese curds.