Liberal Arts Mathematics Topics. Quality Control Quality control, as described in the Encarta dictionary, is a system used in many companies, departments, and businesses to achieve or maintain a desired level of quality in a manufactured product by inspecting samples and evaluating what changes may be needed in the manufacturing process. production. To do this, inspectors are hired to check every step of the production process to ensure that the product complies with the company's standards. There are many companies that use this technique, but one in particular that bases its success on product quality is the food industry. In no other industry is quality control more important than in this field. If quality is not controlled in all products, this can spell disaster for a food processing company. Not only can poorly processed foods taste unpleasant, but, in some cases, they can lead to illness, leaving the industry in a very difficult and possibly legally liable situation. So, to avoid this, the food industry, as well as many others, have chosen to use quality control in the form of sampling, to make sure that their products come to market not only tasting good, but also with a security level. In industry, quality control is used to ensure that only the tastiest product is placed on the market and to do this requires choosing only the best ingredients for a company's product. Take tomato paste for example. The most important ingredient in tomato paste is just that, the tomato. Therefore, a company specializing in tomato paste must first verify and ensure that all tomatoes meet the specified specifications. The first step in this process should therefore be the creation of quality specifications. The most popular method in the food industry to create this is to control the food product through what they call "food attributes". In the case of a tomato this can vary from the color, size, shape, any damage to the tomato and hardness of the fruit. Once this is completed and agreed upon, inspectors are hired to examine and test a representative sample of the food, in this case tomatoes, to ensure the batch meets the specifications set by the company.