Avaliação e adequação das Boas Práticas de Fabricação em uma agroindústria de embutidos cárneos no sul do Brasil baseada na Análise de Componentes Principais

Abstract

The need to maintain quality and thus strengthen competitiveness was perceived as an emerging task for many agrifood companies. In this sense, these companies started to implement some quality programs, among them are the Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP's), which are procedures that must be adopted by agroindustry to guarantee the hygienic and sanitary quality of food in accordance with current legislation, ranging from receipt of raw materials to the final product. In this context, the objective of this work was to evaluate and suit to GMP's in a sausage agroindustry in southern Brazil from Principal Component Analysis. The study was conducted in the city of Pelotas-RS, Brazil, in a small agroindustry, from April 2019 to March 2021. The research was characterized as quali-quantitative. Initially, there was a preliminary assessment, with data collection in loco, through information obtained from employees and the owner of the agroindustry. Were prepared the Good Manufacturing Practices Manual, the Standard Operating Procedures, the Work Instructions and the Quality Records. After validating the documents prepared, training was carried out with all employees and the owner. In the course of the adequacy of the GMP's, to monitor the process, were applied structured questionnaires, checklist type, a total were carried out seven data collections and were evaluated 18 items. The data were transformed into percentages, and were assigned weights to the items evaluated according to their importance, with the sum total of the items, was determined the classification of the agroindustry according to the adequacy of the GMP's at different levels (excellent; very good; good; regular; and, bad). Next, proceeded to apply multivariate statistics with principal component analysis with the entire data set. Also, were performed microbiological analyzes of Salmonella spp., Staphylococcus coagulase positive, Clostridium sulphite-reducing and coliforms at 45°C in meat sausage and in the water used by the agroindustry were quantified total and thermotolerant coliforms; and, heterotrophic bacteria count. The Analysis of Main Components proved that the main item that influenced the adequacy to GMP's were the procedures related to hygiene, both for employees and for internal facilities. In the latest assessments, the agroindustry was rated "excellent", with a percentage above 90% of adequacy to the GMP's. The Principal Component Analysis method proved to be a useful statistical tool and that can be successfully applied to assess the level of adequacy of production processes GMP's. The results of the microbiological analyzes of the finished product 10 and water corroborate to confirm that the adjustments of the GMP's occurred in an adequate manner, with the result that, in the end, the possibility of providing the consumer with a product with adequate sanitary quality and within the standards required by current legislation.