Economics & Sociology

The new approach of food producers to food quality of agricultural products is coming out of aggravation of health safety requirements and producer’s responsibility for its products as well as increasing customer’s demands and expectations concerning health safety and organoleptic quality of food. In Poland like in other EU countries legal regulations concerning production and trade in food are applicable, including also laws introducing obligation to implement and apply some quality management systems. Obligatory quality management systems in enterprises of food industry include: Good Hygiene Practice (GHP), Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) and Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP). Accession of Poland to the European Union had a very significant impact on the condition of implementation and implementing obligatory quality management systems in the food industry. From 1 May 2004 to 1 August 2008, the number of enterprises of the food industry which applied obligatory quality management systems grew significantly. The most advanced level of implementation and application of the GHP, GMP and HACCP was observed in large and medium-sized enterprises.